Ex-Paramount exec sues company, claims he was fired for being 'old' and White

A former executive is alleging Paramount fired him because of his race and age in a new lawsuit filed Friday According to the lawsuit -year-old Joseph E Jerome was one of three White men over the age of fired from Paramount in and replaced by younger more diverse workers Jerome had worked for Paramount since and the majority in recent weeks worked as production counsel for Entertainment Tonight before being replaced with a Black employee decades younger than him the suit alleges Jerome's attorneys cited Paramount's company-wide diversity equity and inclusion DEI initiatives pointing out that all attorneys fired in were White and over TV ANCHOR SUES BOSTON CBS AFFILIATE CLAIMING WHITE EMPLOYEES TARGETED UNDER CORPORATE DEI PUSHThe lawsuit also described a meeting Jerome had with then-CBS News President Wendy McMahon who allegedly complained about the older demographics of the shows that her divisions produced and pushed staff to work on attracting younger viewers Shortly after this meeting Johnson repeatedly criticized Jerome for thinking 'old' when discussing a prospective deal after Jerome flagged that a legal term of art was being misused the lawsuit read Jerome alleged that he was discriminated against based on his race and age in violation of federal and state law and is seeking statutory and punitive damages OUSTED CBS NEWS STAFFER TAKES TO TIKTOK TO ACCUSE ARRANGEMENT OF RACE-BASED LAYOFFSParamount declined to comment to Fox News Digital on the lawsuit The lawsuit was filed after Paramount and CBS quietly settled another lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against straight White male employees in April That lawsuit alleged that former SEAL Company script coordinator and writer Brian Beneker was denied career advancement because he did not check any diversity boxes PARAMOUNT CBS FORCED TO PAY EIGHT FIGURES CHANGE EDITORIAL PLAN IN SETTLEMENT WITH PRESIDENT TRUMPBeneker's lawsuit also cited past comments from then-CBS CEO George Cheeks in announcing efforts to ensure of all writers rooms have BIPOC representation for the - season with the goal of increasing the figure to for the - season In February Paramount Global heads informed employees that it would be rolling back DEI initiatives in the wake of President Donald Trump s re-election and anti-DEI policies This rollback included no longer using aspirational numerical goals for hiring and ending its agenda of collecting race ethnicity sex or gender material of expected applicants except when legally required