CNN Racial Discrimination Suit Dismissed By Judge

A U.S. District Court judge in Atlanta has granted summary judgment to dismiss a case involving a former CNN employee who sued the cable news network, Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting claiming racial discrimination in hiring practices.

Dewayne Walker, a marketing and publicity exec, sued in December 2015 for $50 million claiming he was passed over for promotions and jobs because he was black. He said he filed two claims with the EEOC which were not acted upon.

Walker’s suit helped spur another discrimination lawsuit from two other African American Turner employees. That lawsuit, also filed in Atlanta, was dismissed last July.

A magistrate judge had earlier recommended Judge Richard W. Story dismiss Walker’s case.

Of the nine positions noted in Walker’s lawsuit, he was not eligible for seven of them, both courts found. An eighth, Story said in his order filed Monday (read it here), CNN proved it had met its “burden of articulating a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for selecting” another candidate for the job.

As for the ninth position, Story said “Plaintiff concedes that he did not apply for this position. He has not argued that it would have been futile for him to apply. As a result, Defendants are entitled to summary judgment on this failure-to-promote claim.”

“For the reasons stated above, Plaintiffs objections are OVERRULED, and the Court hereby approves and adopts the Report and Recommendation [Doc. No. 122] as the opinion and order of this Court. Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. No. 82] is GRANTED.”