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A local weatherman filed a suit claiming that a local news station refused to consider his impeccable meteorologist credentials and instead opted to hire the candidate who looked best in a skirt.Kyle Hunter, who has been a weatherman at different stations around Southern California for the last two decades, hired Gloria Allred and filed a suit in court alleging that he faced discrimination when he tried to apply for spots open at KCBS/KCAL, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The complaint says that Hunter learned about the opening when he learned that KCBS' weatherman Johnny Mountain's contract was not going to be renewed. He threw his hat in the ring but the job went to a woman from KCAL the complaint says was less experienced and less qualified. When he applied for the KCAL spot that opened up, it again ended up going to another less qualified, less experienced weatherwoman. (It was around this time that weatherwoman Jackie Johnson moved to KCBS and that KCAL hired Evelyn Taft.)
When Hunter asked a manager at KCAL why he wasn't hired, the complaint says the manager responded, "You wouldn't be the type men would want to look at."
Allred gave a statement about the case to Radar Online:
There are many individuals in broadcast news who fear filing a lawsuit alleging employment discrimination because they worry that they will be retaliated against and be blackballed if they assert their rights to be free of discrimination. Kyle has decided to proceed today because he is concerned not only about the denial of his employment opportunity, but also because he is worried about what he considers to be a trend in television news to hire young women as weather broadcasters in prime time while denying qualified male meteorologists the opportunity to be considered for those jobs.
