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.
58 comments:
I hope she wins this case. I think she did a great job.
Give 'em hell, tiger.
Stick it to the man. Go girl!
WLBT - "3 not on your side"
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.
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.
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.
If you fire me, I consider the non compete void. Sue me.
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.
WLBT finna find out why woke goes broke. Give em hell Barbie! Ain’t nuthin’ but ‘G’ thang baby!
I haven’t watched WLBT since.
Her 15 minutes was over 40 years ago!!!!!!
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.
Fight, fight, fight.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Did they discipline her after the first incident? The second incident? The third incident? Or, just terminate her. Interesting.
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.
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.
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.
@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.
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.
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.
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.
After they fired her I blackballed that station - TV and web.
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.
I hope she wins and royally big.
Please don’t be another Trent Lott. Show them what good trouble really means.
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!
I hope she puts WLBT out of business.
I would have sworn she was well into her 60s.
Jim and Rachel Waide don't waste time on unwinnable cases.
WLBT (Woke Liberals Being Triggered) - 3 one your side, until we're not.
I hope she wins.
Nobody claimed that her firing was or was not illegally discriminatory. YOU mentioned intent, which is not required. Surely you know that impact outweighs intent, intent not being a consideration.
Just where are you on whether there was any discussion had between the employee and HR or other management?
The post at 4:56 only addresses your suggestion that intent is necessary for the charging party to prevail.
Your dislike for her is based on your personal preferences. "You thought", "In your opinion" and "She seemed" are not the best ways to arrive at conclusions.
Do you not know that ALL television personalities either capture audience members or are rejected by audience members? You are sorely outnumbered. In other words, who cares where you were prior to Katrina or what your thoughts were after you got here.
That was all so stupid. She didn’t do anything wrong or say anything wrong. I sent an email to WLBT urging them to stand behind her and got a silly response along the lines of “words can really hurt”. Snoop Dogg came up with that silly phrase and it’s perfectly fine for black people to throw around the dreaded “n-word” but let a white person say something they decide to perceive as “racist” and by God it’s time to crucify whitey.
One race being allowed to say something that other races cannot say is racial supremacy. Plus Martha Stewart was allowed to say it because she collaborated with Snoop and they added to their wealth. It was sanctioned by the (((media)))
If anything, it was cringy as the children say these days. Nothing worth losing your job over. But these days people are super sensitive and simple minded. Also, that was E-40 that came up with that lingo that Snoop copied.
Do anyone really think Barbie called her grandmother "grandmammy"? Seriously......
This can be turned every way you want...this Barbie doll is out !
WLBT = Woke Liberals Being Triggered - @10:24 PM You won yesterday's internet.
Gray Media owns propaganda outlets all over the U.S. Its corporate office is in Atlanta. WLBT was respectable when locally owned. It is not a local station anymore. Their online news stories are often shorter than a social media posts, often have spelling and grammar errors, even in the story titles. This is not a local station, nor does it actually give a DAMN about Jackson, Mississippi. The best thing locals can do is never watch it, follow it on socials, or visit their website which gives them ad revenue.
What that can or can't say is ordered from corporate, not locally.
The other locals aren't local either. WJTV is owned by Nexstar Media Group, based in New York and WAPT is owned by Hearst Media, also based in New York. Avoid all three of these propaganda outlets unless you need local weather or scores for local sports. You can also get that online without any of them.
I was contacted by a reporter at WLBT about a story a while back. I told the reporter to eat shit. I don't talk to communists.
Who’ll be the next token White up on WLBT’s chopping block?
I defended a case that Jim Waide filed. It was unwinnable, and he lost.
She was sooo close to saying "For Shipley I get Nipply" and none of this would have happened.
If memory serves, WLBT got its license revoked when it was "locally owned'.
"The press is our chief ideological weapon."
"We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within." (Nikita Kruschev, Soviet First Secretary of the Communist Party 1953-1964 )
When people in MS get tired of bowing to this culture and start using your freedom of speech the same way that culture does, then maybe you will begin to feel better about yourselves and grow up and take your city back, clean it up, and act like grown ups instead of cowards. I think bowing to a particular race of people since the 60’s is long enough. It’s time for both races to get a grip. That’s why MS stays on the bottom of the list. Good for Barbie. You can’t talk to ignorance. You hit ‘em where it hurts…financially. They understand that.
WLOX (another Gray Television station) on the Coast recently fired longtime anchor David Elliott after he posted on his personal social media platforms that if people were voting for Harris as a vote against Trump, they should just stay home. Elliott later posted on social media that he couldn’t believe “they” fell for it. That suggests Elliott planned his exit and his firing voided his non-compete agreement. He is now anchoring 5 and 6 pm newscasts at WXXV, also on the Coast. Elliott was at WLOX almost 40 years and his departure was closely after the retirement of his longtime fellow anchor Karen Abernathy.
I have not watched WLBT news since that happened and never will. They gave in to the professional victims.
Late to the comments. Barbie said ‘grandmammie’ and a nonsense quote from Snoop Dog? That is what my siblings and I called my maternal great grandmother. Someone was looking for an excuse to fire her.
Glad to see her standing up and not being silent. Pacer says there's lots of that going on as of recent.
Anybody know if her replacement is being paid more than she was after all of those years? Haven’t watched 3 since she was let go.
Looks like this isn’t the only federal lawsuit going on & the home office settled. https://1819news.com/news/item/former-wtvm-sports-broadcaster-dave-platta-reaches-settlement-over-covid-vaccine-mandate
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