A NY1 reporter embroiled in a discrimination lawsuit against the station claims one of her segments on Harvey Weinstein was pulled from the air because it included comments from a lawyer representing the disgraced mogul’s accusers — who also happens to be helping her sue NY1.
Kristen Shaughnessy was assigned to cover Monday’s final pre-trial conference for the scandal-scarred producer, and submitted footage of a press conference containing snippets of multiple attorneys speaking, including Douglas Wigdor, her other attorney David Gottleib told The Post.
Gottlieb said another producer selected clips of Wigdor — who’s representing Shaughnessy and several other veteran reporters in an age and gender discrimination lawsuit against NY1 — which was then shown during a noon segment hosted by fellow plaintiff Roma Torre.
Yet after the piece ran, it was suddenly pulled from the air, and replaced it with another report that didn’t feature Wigdor.
“It’s my understanding there was a buzz around the office that management essentially decided to take this piece off the air,” Gottlieb said, adding his client was pulled from covering Weinstein’s jury selection for the rest of the week.
Gottlieb, who is Wigdor’s partner, noted this isn’t the only incident of retaliation that seems to have stemmed from the lawsuit, will likely be included in an amended version of Shaughnessy’s Manhattan federal court suit against NY1’s parent company, Charter Communications.
“This is not only blatant ongoing retaliation against our clients and their counsel for bringing discrimination claims against NY1, but an egregious disservice to all New Yorkers to let personal animosity by NY1 management interfere with the reporting of a major news story,” he said.
A spokeswoman with NY1 denied the allegations, calling them “categorically false.”
“At no point did management direct, or in any way suggest, that Kristen’s story be changed,” Stacey Mitch said. “Dean Meminger is our criminal justice reporter who works Tuesday – Friday, and will be regularly reporting on the Weinstein trail. Last Monday when the trial began, Kristen Shaughnessy, who was the general assignment reporter for the day, was assigned to cover the trial that day.”
