A federal appellate court in New Orleans declined to revive a White former news anchor’s racial discrimination lawsuit over on-air comments her employer deemed racially offensive before firing her.
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in an unpublished order Friday, upheld a Mississippi federal judge’s summary judgment order for NBC-affiliate WLBT, which found that Barbie Bassett failed to prove any racial motivation behind her termination, and didn’t show that a person of a different race would be treated differently under the same facts.
Bassett, who joined the station in 1999, said she was wrongfully fired in 2023 ...