Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Barbie Fights The Power

 Barbie Bassett is fighting back.  WLBT fired Jackson's darling in 2023 after she made what it considered to be racially insensitive comments on the air.  However, Ms. Bassett sued Gray Media, WLBT's parent company, for age and race discrimination in federal court. 

Credit: Vicksburg Daily News

WLBT hired Ms. Bassett in 1999, where she quickly zoomed to popularity as the most popular "weatherman" in Mississippi.  After many years of appearing as the "weather gal", she moved over to the anchor desk at WLBT.  

The weekend of October 28, 2022 was ground-breaking for Jackson as ESPN's College Gameday arrived to cover the Jackson State University-Southern University game at Memorial Stadium.  No small affair this was.  The little episode posted below occurred during a WLBT live-shot from the stadium as Barbie & company tried to figure out who the ESPN celebrity guest picker would be. 



The reporter appeared to be surprised and her colleague at the desk challenged her.  Of course, local race-baiters and Facebook "journalists" saw their chance and fired up the masses.  Hot diggity DAMN!  We got us a racist!   Gray Media disciplined its employee. 



The complaint states she did not "believe the word "grandmammie" had a racial connotation" but apologized.  Friends of the accused said they had heard her refer to her own grandmother with that word in the past as she grew up in rural Quitman County. Oh, the guest picker was Dallas Cowboys fanatic Stephen A. Smith.   




Fast forward to March 8, 2023.  The plaintiff states: 

On March 8, 2023, Plaintiff was talking with a male news person about a popular personality, Snoop Dogg, and made the statement “fo shizzle, my nizzle.” Defendant claimed that this comment was inappropriate.


All hell broke loose.  The media darling was no longer considered such at WLBT as she was relieved her duties and subsequently terminated.   The firing generated no small amount of controversy as the "activists" demanded her head on a platter while black media personalities such as Charlemagne and Whoopi Goldberg said enough was enough as they defended her.  

Ms. Basset claimed age and race discrimination took place as she was replaced by a black woman in her early 30's.  The 51 year-old plaintiff argued: 

Plaintiff believes the television market in which she worked is primarily African-American. It is likely that Defendant regards being African-American and being young as desirable job requirements, and it is likely Defendant regards being older (fifty-one (51)) and white as job detriments. 

Gray Media is apparently enforcing a non-compete agreement against her.  The complaint charges: 

Defendant’s treatment of Plaintiff is especially outrageous because it required her to execute an unreasonable noncompete agreement, which substantially hinders her finding employment in her chosen career.

This noncompete agreement is unenforceable because Plaintiff’s discharge was without cause. Defendant’s attempt to enforce the noncompete is another outrageous act by Defendant. Plaintiff asks this Court to declare the noncompete agreement void. (KF Note: the employment agreement contains a non-compete restriction for a term of one year.) 

An EEOC complaint was soon filed.  The agency gave Ms. Bassett the right to sue her former employer. 

Ms. Bassett sued for actual, compensatory, and punitive damages in U.S. District Court in December 2023.  She also asked the Court to dissolve the non-compete agreement.  Her attorneys are Jim and Rachel Waide of Tupelo. 

The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan, III and is currently in the discovery phase. 

 

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope she wins this case. I think she did a great job.

Anonymous said...

Give 'em hell, tiger.

Anonymous said...

Stick it to the man. Go girl!

Anonymous said...

WLBT - "3 not on your side"

Anonymous said...

You've got to be a huge piece of crap human being to attempt to enforce a non-compete when you are who terminated the employment. A person has a right to use his or her experience to earn a living.

Anonymous said...

I believe it was local radio host Clay Edwards who asked at the time, "Will they just give us a list if the things we can't say?" - or something like that. Those who are perpetually offended want nothing more than to be offended by something, anything, it doesn't matter. They just want to make it up as they go.

Anonymous said...

Phone she cleans their clock. She deserves triple what she's asking for. All.local stations are race baiters, all to get clicks. Time to pay up.

Anonymous said...

If you fire me, I consider the non compete void. Sue me.

Anonymous said...

Gray's document is so badly written, I'm amazed. They don't know how to use quotation marks?

As for 'Grandmammy', I googled the term, back when this happened, including an image search. Most of the results were obituaries for very-old women in Appalachia - all of them WHITE. Some of the image results were for an old comic strip, called 'L'il Abner' - set, presumably, in Appalachia (mostly about an extremely-hot Hillbilly stud, and his equally-hot girlfriend - both sexualized to an unreal degree: presumably, this comic was used for prurient purposes, out in the barn...when the fellas tired of the underwear pages in the Sears catalog). One L'il Abner character was 'Grandmammy'. Not one single search result was about the Deep South, or about slavery or nonwhites.

So, yes, this is about PREDATORY OUTRAGE, aka FOR-PROFIT OUTRAGE.

Anonymous said...

WLBT finna find out why woke goes broke. Give em hell Barbie! Ain’t nuthin’ but ‘G’ thang baby!

Anonymous said...

I haven’t watched WLBT since.

Anonymous said...

Her 15 minutes was over 40 years ago!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

This lady has been a part of the fabric of Jackson for so long I assumed she was older than 51 years of age. The non compete should be void. She has to be able to work. She has a Talented lawyer too.

Anonymous said...

Fight, fight, fight.

Macy Hanson said...

Proving actual intent to discriminate based on race and age is going to be an uphill battle - there is a plausible non-discriminatory basis for firing here. My prediction: Judge Jordan dismisses on summary judgment.

Bad firing decisions do not equal Title VII decisions.

Anonymous said...

I hope she gets a verdict that drives that sorry station into bankruptcy. How ironic would it be if discrimination claims brought down WLBT given the history of the ownership of that broadcast license? Ha!

Anonymous said...

MACY HANSON: I'm surprised that, as an attorney, you don't know that intent is not required in order to prevail in a discrimination lawsuit.

I'm also surprised that you have no question regarding whether or not management discussed these issues with plaintiff in order to understand the basis of her comments and to conclude, on such (absent) discussions, whether termination was appropriate.

If you haven't practiced in, say, twenty years, I'll cut you some slack.

Anonymous said...

Good for her. That was such an overreaction by WLBT and I hope she wins. Its past time to stop playing this mental illness games with the snowflakes.

Anonymous said...

I expected them to get Wilson soon after. He made a comment about the heat being oppressive. His colleague at the desk gasped and responded that was such a strong word. Wilson laughed it off. She was moved off the desk shortly thereafter.

Anonymous said...

Did they discipline her after the first incident? The second incident? The third incident? Or, just terminate her. Interesting.

Don Drane said...

If the separated employee shows that her role with a different employer is in a non-competitive capacity, there is no way a non-compete in an employment contract will be upheld.

The only thing in consideration, here, is her personality and the employer has no right to that, unless she signed away her rights to image, likeness and work product, which is doubtful.

The employer has no expectation of protection of trade secrets since there are none. Whatever skills she takes with her are her own property, skills she cultivated over many years. An employer won't prevail since the information cannot be trade secrets if generally known to others in the profession.

I met and introduced myself to Barbie at the Post Office in Madison 15 years ago, and her smile is not owned by the previous employer.

Anonymous said...

MACY HANSON: I'm surprised that, as an attorney, you don't know that intent is not required in order to prevail in a discrimination lawsuit.

I'm also surprised that you have no question regarding whether or not management discussed these issues with plaintiff in order to understand the basis of her comments and to conclude, on such (absent) discussions, whether termination was appropriate.

If you haven't practiced in, say, twenty years, I'll cut you some slack.

Bill Dees said...

I lived in Gulfport until Katrina, so I never knew the Pageant Barbie. After I moved to Jackson, I never cared for her. I always thought she was "fake". Like a pageant girl fake, even though I knew nothing about her background. In my opinion, she deserved to be fired. She seemed to me to be clueless about her audience.

Macy Hanson said...

@4:03. I practice in this and field and I post using my name.

A bad firing decision does not mean the decision was based upon age or race. She was fired for comments that she made. Whether a good or bad decision.

Anonymous said...

I've known Barbie Bassett on both a personal and professional level for 30 years, and I can state unequivocally that she doesn't have a racist bone in her body. Her only sin, if any, was a woefully inadequate knowledge of African-American patois.

Anonymous said...

My television will never see WLBT News ever again and I hope Barbie Bassett smokes WLBTs chicken s__t leftist Democrat a___s.

For too long this country has lacked enough people with the integrity to stand up and tell race baiting fake outrage leftist Democrats to F Off. But that all changed during this last presidential election. While rich s__t eaters like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Mark “Favors” Cuban, et al only worry about making another billion, Elon Musk, Bill Ackman, Peter Thiel and celebrities like Jillian Michaels and Dennis Quaid said enough, we’ve had it with your love of crime and chaos and anti-children and girls lying race hustling cry baby BS.

January 20th can’t get here fast enough. On day 1 they need to start the process of prosecuting the prosecutors that weaponized the government against those they disagreed with. Democrats proved they would stop at nothing to become rulers of this country so the Trump administration should roll heads, and big time.

Democrats have been a cancer on this country and its time to apply the chemo.

Anonymous said...

The second happiest day of my life will be when WLBT loses their FCC license for not serving the public interest. The happiest day of my life will be when the Clarion-Ledger ceases to exist.

Anonymous said...

After they fired her I blackballed that station - TV and web.

Anonymous said...

Barbie simply got too comfortable in her conversation with black women. In the present climate white women must be very careful when they are either critical or joking with black women in a public setting. There are open wounds that she must be aware of to avoid controversy. It's sad but very true.

Anonymous said...

I hope she wins and royally big.

Anonymous said...

Please don’t be another Trent Lott. Show them what good trouble really means.

Anonymous said...

I remember listening to Barbie The Chopper Chick doing traffic with Capt. Koit. They were close to the I55-I20 split and a big bold of lightning struck apparently close to them. Barbie exclaimed on live radio "Oh Lord!! Glad I have my velcro panties on!!!" I remember it well!

Anonymous said...

I hope she puts WLBT out of business.

Kricky said...

I would have sworn she was well into her 60s.

Anonymous said...

Jim and Rachel Waide don't waste time on unwinnable cases.

Anonymous said...

WLBT (Woke Liberals Being Triggered) - 3 one your side, until we're not.


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