Exclusive: Washington Post Sued for Race Discrimination

News Notes, Notoriety, Sort of Serious Stuff

Black Ad Employee Sues WaPo for Discrimination

By Betsy Rothstein on September 13, 2013 2:45 PM

So far mums the word around WaPo about a federal lawsuit being brought forth by a black advertising department employee for age and race discrimination. The news first surfaced in a story by Evan Gahr for The Daily Caller published Wednesday. It’s his first freelance story for the publication. He says there are more to come.
Lawsuits can be complex so we’ll boil it down for you.
The Plaintiff: a longtime employee, David DeJesus, 59, who claims he was abruptly fired only to be replaced by a younger, white man. DeJesus has an 18-year employment record at WaPo and has won awards for his sales performance. At the crux of the suit is the treatment of DeJesus by his Caucasian boss, Noelle Wainwright, who he alleges treated him in a demeaning manner that she did not extend to white employees. According to the story, “DeJesus was actually reinstated at the Washington Post early this year following binding arbitration required by the paper’s union contract.”
WaPo‘s defense from court papers: “Some or all of Plaintiff’s purported claims are barred because, even if the Post were found to have considered any impermissible factors in any decisions or actions with respect to Plaintiff, which the Post denies, no such decisions were motivated by impermissible factors and the Post would have taken the same action regardless of any impermissible factors.”
Noteworthy: The lawsuit states that between 2009 and 2011 WaPo fired at least 18 black employees over the age of 40.
The status: Discovery reportedly begins later this month.
Who spoke to Gahr from WaPo and who didn’t?
Gahr says he reached out to black WaPo employees such as Kevin Merida, and columnists Eugene Robinson Jonathan Capehart. He left them repeated messages; Neither Robinson nor Capehart returned his calls. Merida picked up, heard the reporter out and said he’d look into it. Gahr said Merida told him he hadn’t heard about the case and wouldn’t comment on it. He phoned Donald Graham at his listed home phone number but got voice mail. He also phoned Wainwright who hung up on Gahr when he called her. Finally, he phoned the outside Post lawyer handling the case, Jackie Jones, who told him she was not allowed to talk to him.

Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove Dubs Evan Gahr the Washington Gadfly

Evan Gahr, a former press critic for the New York Post, has written for almost every major conservative publication. His scoops have been repeatedly picked up by the Huffington Post, Page Six, the Washington Post and lots of other places.  He also broke the story of a sexual harassment scandal at the Family Research Council
@EvanGahr

Dean Baquet

was aghast that Washington Gadfly  would publish his home number, which was recently deleted from WhitePages.com--even though the New York Times published where Darren Wilson lives.

Baquet claims the two are not comparable because the Times did not publish Darren Wilson's home number.

Oh, gee. That's really exculpatory.  The Times saved Wilson from someone making threatening phone calls.  Instead, they made it possible for people to actually CARRY out their threats and off him.

Anyway, after much consideration, his phone number was deleted from this non-blog.  It would not have advanced the story to have every conservative freak in the country--and there are quite a few!--calling him at home.  Instead, the phone number was used to bait him into a substantive response, for the first time, to questions that the publication of Wilson's information raised.

Now, his rank hyporcisy is much in evidence.  I was determined not to let him hide between the Times spokesperson or the Public Editor.

Other stuff about Dean Baquet--

1.  He  stole this reporter's exclusive report about the dopey essay Obama wrote at Columbia--the only thing he wrote there that anyone ever obtained--for the front page of the New York Times.

3. He refused  to report that the Washington Post is being sued for racial discrimination by longtime black employee David DeJesus.  Even though he reports on race discrimination lawsuits against far less prominent organizations and businesses. In an email to Evan Gahr last year, Baquet dismissed the Washington Post lawsuit as trivial.

What is it going to take for the New York Times to cover DeJesus? Does he need to get shot by a white cop after robbing a convenience store? Then the New York Times can exploit him to cast aspersions on white people and  American society?

4. He refused to report that the Bush White House got a journalist fired from the Hudson Institute because he embarrassed Karl Rove.  Notwithstanding the fact that the Bush White House acted after they saw an article IN the New York Times about the controversy. (See incriminating email below).

 
Not to anyone following up on this. I am not a blogger. I am not a blogger. I am not a blogger. In other words, I am not a blogger. I have written for almost every major conservative publication. Most bloggers have not been paid for a single article. I was a press critic for the late New York Post editorial page editor Eric Breindel and a staff reporter for Insight magazine, sister publication of the Washington Times.

I only represent myself here. But given my record that should count for quite a bit. 


Twitter@EvanGahr