A TV anchor at a local CBS station in Boston claims she was demoted from her job because she is a white woman — and alleged she fell victim to a “DEI agenda” that was raging out of control across the Tiffany Network, according to a bombshell lawsuit.
Katherine Merrill Dunham, a longtime anchor for CBS affiliate WBZ-TV known on air as Kate Merrill, filed suit against the station’s corporate parents CBS and Paramount Global this month alleging that she was run out of the newsroom to satisfy corporate diversity quotas.
The 51-year-old Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, who is married to ex-Rangers goalie Mike Dunham, stunned viewers last year when she quit the station without explanation.
In her Aug. 5 suit filed in Boston federal court, Merrill alleged she was targeted by managers who said the morning show was “too white” and by co-workers who filed “malicious” race-based complaints against her.
The lawsuit cites exclusive reporting by The Post of then-CBS News president Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, who was accused of using her clout to promote minorities while unfairly sidelining white journalists during her tenure.
Her downfall began, she claims, after Paramount and CBS rolled out sweeping diversity mandates in response to past allegations of racism.
Executives allegedly described WBZ as “the whitest of all their stations” and vowed to allow only minority hires.
Dominican-born Ciprian Mathew was named as president of CBS News in August 2023 despite being the subject of an internal probe by the company in 2021 over her alleged hiring practices, The Post reported.
“WBZ-TV exploited such policies and took career-ending action against Ms. Merrill to advance a DEI agenda,” according to the complaint.
Ciprian-Matthews stepped down in July of last year.
Paramount scrapped its controversial DEI programs earlier this year ahead of its deal with Skydance after President Trump-nominated FCC Chair Brendan Carr reportedly vowed to block any mergers involving companies that held firm to “woke” policies.
According to the complaint, the trouble started when Jason Mikell, a black co-worker and meteorologist at WBZ, allegedly “made an inappropriate sexual innuendo about” Merrill “on air” in February of last year when he “implied that Ms. Merrill and her co-anchor had sexual relations at a gazebo.”
The lawsuit alleges that despite complaints to supervisors by Merrill’s executive producer, Mikell “was not disciplined for his sexually charged remark about Ms. Merrill.”
A few weeks later in April of last year, after she privately texted him to correct a mispronunciation of “Concord,” Mikell allegedly “loudly yelled at her on the studio floor,” according to the suit.
Merrill claims she immediately complained to human resources — but a week later, Paramount’s HR chief informed her that Mikell and Courtney Cole, a black anchor hired by WBZ in 2022, had accused her of racial bias.
After 20 years at the station, the Emmy-winning broadcaster charges that she was branded a racist, demoted in public and forced into a “constructive discharge resignation”.
On May 17, 2024, Michael Roderick, vice president of employee relations at Paramount, issued a report finding Merrill had engaged in “microaggressions or unconscious bias.”
WBZ President and GM Justin Draper handed her a written warning requiring unconscious bias training and threatening termination if she slipped again, according to the complaint.
The next day, Draper allegedly blindsided her with news she was being demoted from morning anchor to weekends — a move he announced in two staff meetings, the lawsuit alleged.
“Demoting Ms. Merrill in the context of the investigation sent the false message to her professional colleagues that she had engaged in serious wrongdoing,” the lawsuit said.
Union leaders told Merrill that the demotion constituted “career sabotage” and she would “never recover.” Facing what she called a career-ending blow, Merrill resigned May 24, 2024.
The suit alleged male and minority colleagues were spared similar punishment for misconduct. It cites Mikell’s innuendo and an incident in which a black reporter allegedly “physically threw” a co-worker against a wall. None were demoted, according to the filing.
According to Merrill’s lawsuit, Mikell lodged a complaint against her in which he falsely accused her of making racially charged comments, including one in which she allegedly told him that after his hiring he would “find his people” in Boston.
The lawsuit alleged that Mikell complained after she failed to ask him “about his weekend, an omission he apparently attributed to his race…”
The complaint also mentions another incident in which she suggested he could be a garbage collector while a co-anchor joked he could pick strawberries during an on-air bit.
Merrill denied “any of her actions, inactions, or comments were as described or motivated by overt racism or unconscious bias.”
Merrill, a Carlisle, Mass. native and Concord resident, launched her career in 1996 and joined WBZ in 2004. She became co-anchor of “WBZ This Morning” and “WBZ News at Noon” in 2017.
The filing touts her spotless record, “extraordinary reputation” and a résumé that included coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing, Democratic National Convention, Red Sox World Series win and Patriots Super Bowls.
“For more than 20 years, Ms. Merrill worked closely, virtually daily, with colleagues regardless of race,” the filing states, attaching photos of her with black colleagues.
“She is anti-racist.”
In 2022, WBZ hired Cole and Japanese American anchor Chris Tanaka, demoting white colleagues in the process.
In 2023, black meteorologist Mikell joined the station, replacing Zack Green, a white forecaster, according to the complaint.
Her WBZ contract — which runs until June 2025 — contains a non-compete clause, blocking her from working elsewhere in TV until it expires.
She says she has suffered “significant financial losses” and reputational damage, and that WBZ still has not paid her for 20 unused vacation days.
The Post has sought comment from Merrill’s attorneys, Patricia Washienko and Allison Williard; WBZ-TV; CBS; Paramount Global; Draper; Mikell; Cole and Roderick.
