“It fits the rhetoric of ‘These whiny old ladies are complaining again,’” said Amanda Farinacci, 40, the network’s Staten Island reporter. “But this is career-ending, these opportunities that we’re not getting.” Among other slights, the lawsuit alleges that Ms. Farinacci was excluded from moderating a town hall based on her reporting on Hurricane Sandy.
Like her colleagues, Ms. Farinacci invoked the case of Sue Simmons, the WNBC-TV anchor whose ouster in 2012 caused an uproar. Her co-anchor, Chuck Scarborough, remained at the network, where he recently celebrated his 45th year.
“It’s always there as a woman,” Ms. Farinacci said. “How much longer do I have? Where am I going? Look at Chuck, he’s been there 45 years. And people just disappear, like Sue.”
Age discrimination cases can sometimes be difficult to establish at trial, and lawyers who specialize in labor issues say some industries accept a certain amount of ageism as a matter of course.
“In Hollywood and the media, the perceived wisdom is that there’s discrimination against older employees, particularly women, because employers want to put forward a younger face,” said David Lopez, a former general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the dean of Rutgers Law School. “That’s discrimination, in my book.”
Mr. Lopez, who had not reviewed the NY1 lawsuit and spoke in general terms, said employers were often more comfortable expressing a bias against older workers, as opposed to bias based on gender or race.
“But it is against the law,” he said, “even in the media industry.”
Many of Mr. Wigdor’s lawsuits are settled without an explicit finding of liability. In his office this week, the NY1 anchors said they hoped that going public with their claims might ease the pathway for women in their industry.
“We don’t have animosity toward the younger people who are taking our jobs,” Ms. Torre said. “But they’re going to get older, too, one day. And this cycle has got to stop.”
