Until June 2024, she spent more than two decades at WBZ-4 in Boston, a station that as of this morning is part of the newly christened Paramount Skydance Corporation. Now, company executives may be heading to a Massachusetts federal district court to discuss whether or not the CBS Owned Station engaged in two forms of discrimination when it parted ways with a veteran female news team member.
The lawsuit against WBZ-TV and individuals Jason Mikell, Courtney Cole, Justin Draper and Michael Roderick is being filed by Kate Merrill.
Merrill, who hired Washienko Law Group of Boston to represent her in court, had been associated with WBZ-4 from March 2004 through June of last year. Before that, she spent a year at WNBC-4 in New York and from 1998-2003 was an anchor and reporter at WKRN-2 in Nashville. The WBZ job was a return home for Merrill, who graduated from high school in Concord, Mass. She began her career in TV news in 1996 at WICZ-TV in Binghamton, N.Y.
For Judge Myong J. Joun, employment discrimination is at the heart of the complaint, in which Merrill seeks $4 million in damages.
The complaint and demand for jury trial notes how Merrill in 2017 was promoted, being named co-anchor for both WBZ This Morning and WBZ News at Noon. Her “extraordinary reputation” and “a heretofore spotless record” was noted, making Merrill “beloved by viewers and colleagues.”
What happened? The trouble looks to be tied to the departure of Mark Lund as President/GM for WBZ-4 and WSBK-38 in Boston and the subsequent appointment of the stations’ financial controller — Mr. Draper — to the top role. Draper joined the stations after previously serving as GM of CBS O&Os KOVR-13 and KMAX-31 in Sacramento. In the complaint, the Washienko attorneys note, “In the early 2020s, WBZ-TV adopted diversity, equity and inclusion policies imposed by its parent corporations Columbia Broadcasting System and Paramount Global Inc. In 2024, WBZ-TV exploited such policies and took career-ending action against Ms. Merrill to advance a DEI agenda.”
Thus, the action is being brought against the station and its owner and against Draper, with Merrill arguing that her dismissal is in violation of both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Massachusetts Fair Employment Practices Act.
Furthermore, the court is also being asked to seek redress against Mr. Roderick, the VP of Employee Relations at Paramount Global at the time, for failure to adequately investigate Merrill’s discrimination claims, a violation of Massachusetts law.
Then, Merrill also seeks redress for tortious interference against Draper, Roderick, Mikell and Cole for “for failure [to] timely pay wages.” Mikell is a Meteorologist at WBZ-TV and was added to the team in September 2023; Cole is an anchor and reporter at WBZ-TV and its “CBS Boston” operation since July 2022.
A summons was sent to all involved on Wednesday (8/6).
Merrill’s efforts to seek resolution of her exit from WBZ-4 began in September 2024, when she filed a Charge of Discrimination with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. On July 2, 2025, she opted to withdraw the charge and opted for a private cause of action in civil court.
“Invidious” forms of DEI discrimination, a hot topic for FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, could be at the heart of Merrill’s claim. In the complaint, a April 2019 comment from CBS news and entertainment divisions veteran Whitney Davis that CBS had a “White problem” was highlighted, demonstrating how the company moved forward as other multicultural employees came forward to report what they viewed to be a toxic, racist environment.
By April 2021, CBS Stations President Peter Dunn and SVP of News David Friend were gone, with their reputations tarnished. This came after a 2020 declaration that CBS Entertainment Group would ensure that by “the 2022-2023 broadcast season: half of all writers will be non-white.” While this focused mainly on network television programming, a July 2021 comment from George Cheeks — today the leader of all CBS O&Os — stands out to Merrill and her legal team: “[T]here are clear themes that we need to address moving forward: our diversity, equity and inclusion standards need to be a top priority for leadership in every corner of our station’s business; our workplace culture needs to measurably improve; and, your trust needs to be restored with your CBS leaders.”
The statement came two months before now-former CBS News & Stations President Wendy McMahon was hired from ABC and while Adrienne Roark was at the company as the head of CBS’s East Coast stations.
It is Roark, and Draper, who are in Merrill’s crosshairs, although Roark is not noted in the lawsuit as she is today with TEGNA. As Merrill sees it, Roark said the WBZ Morning Show was not diverse and repeatedly said it was “too White,” that WBZ was “the
least diverse station for on air talent” and the “whitest of all their stations” (or words
to that effect) and that “it (i.e., its personnel) had to change.”
Merrill also asserts that Roark informed managers that she would allow only minority hires, with the complaint alleging, “Roark had handcuffed (i.e., prevented) hiring when they had no minority candidates and a qualified White candidate, whom they were not permitted to hire.”
By June 2022, Jessi Miller, a White woman in her late 40s who had more than 20 years of
experience at WBZ-TV, was replaced as News Director by Gerardo Lopez, described by Merrill as “a younger, Hispanic, gay man with far less experience in news and no experience in the Boston market.”
Other instances in which reverse discrimination is alleged are included in the complaint, including references to former CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews.
Then, there’s a claim against Mikell that on a February 22, 2024 newscast, Mikell implied that he and Merrill had sexual relations at a gazebo. A complaint to Lopez from Mikell resulted in no disciplinary action, Merrill said.
Additionally, the complaint details an incident in which “Concord” was mispronounced by Mikell on-air and how Merrill attempted to correct him during a commercial break with a text message, resulting in an alleged inappropriate response from Mikell.
Eventually, Merrill was moved to a role in which she was a weekend nighttime anchor, taken off of the WBZ morning show. While she was gone from June 2024, a non-compete provision effectively prohibited her from working until June 2025. At the time of her departure, local media noted that Merrill “reportedly quit” from WBZ-TV.
“Kate Merrill has decided to leave CBS Boston/WBZ,” the station said in a June 2024 statement to the Boston Herald. “We wish her the best.”
