Paramount Global/Skydance merger - New York Post: CBS to pay fired exec accused of calling anchor ‘too gay’ nearly $10 million after caving to ‘woke mob’

Story from New York Post:

CBS must pay nearly $10 million to an executive accused of racist, sexist comments — after caving to a “woke mob” and firing him before an investigation into his conduct was complete, according to court papers and his attorney.

The network made a multimillion-dollar mistake when it tried to tweak the terms of Peter Dunn’s termination months after sacking him from his role as president of CBS Television Stations, an arbitration appeals panel confirmed last week.

His lawyer said CBS caved to pressure from “woke” critics who tried to cancel Dunn after he faced anonymous claims in a 2021 newspaper article that he had fostered a hostile work environment, including by calling a news anchor “too gay.”

Dunn was fired a couple of months after the report — which “destroyed” his life and kept him from getting any other jobs, his lawyer said in court papers.

“This was never about Peter’s conduct — it was to appease the woke mob,” his lawyer, Larry Hutcher, told The Post. “It was like the Red Scare, and it was very shortsighted and unfair.”

A CBS spokesperson said that a “procedural issue” led to the arbitration ruling in Dunn’s favor, and that it “strongly disagree[s]” with the decision.

“Four years ago, we removed Peter Dunn as head of the CBS Television Stations for reasons that have been well documented and reported publicly,” the spokesperson said. “This decision was not based on the substance of the allegations against Mr. Dunn.”

The media company has had numerous shakeups and high-profile departures recently as it tries to appease Trump administration officials who need to sign off on a merger proposal.

The Dunn drama began in 2021, when an article in the Los Angeles Times detailed allegations that he and another CBS executive fostered a hostile work environment.

One former employee claimed Dunn had made “racist, sexist, homophobic and discriminatory comments,” including calling a black evening anchor at a local affiliate in Philadelphia “a jive guy.”

A former news director also claimed Dunn called another anchor “too gay.”

CBS immediately suspended Dunn, who had worked at the network for 20 years, and the other exec named in the report, and began an internal investigation.

But then, CBS fired Dunn before it finished the investigation, though it did not list the reason for the sacking as “for-cause” at the time, according to court documents.

The company instead cited the ongoing investigation in its firing letter to Dunn, and said he would continue to be paid “as though your termination is without cause,” while noting it could alter the terms once the probe ended, filings show.

When the investigation was completed four months later, CBS said it was converting Dunn’s termination to “for cause” — which would strip him of millions owed in back pay and stock equity.

When Dunn took CBS’s move to arbitration, a panel of retired judges said the network clearly violated his employment contract, which stated that CBS had to determine at the time of his firing if it was “for cause” or “without cause.”

The contract did not allow for “a new and nebulous third option” which would grant “CBS the (apparently unfettered) discretion to defer the ‘cause’ determination,” a judge wrote last year, ruling in favor of Dunn.

CBS appealed the decision, and another set of retired judges unanimously confirmed the ruling last week, ordering the network to pay Dunn over $7 million, plus interest, for a total of $9.78 million.

“The Parties could have drafted such a provision,” the appeals panel ruled, “but did not.”

But Hutcher, Dunn’s attorney, said the network’s decision to first fire his client in the face of the “woke” blowback and then to retroactively decide that the firing was “for cause” after its probe was a huge mistake.

“The proper and prudent response would have been to suspend him, continue to pay him, wait for the investigation to be completed, and then fire him,” Hutcher said.

Hutcher said that in 50 years of practicing law, it was “the first time I ever had an appeal in an arbitration,” but that he was pleased with the outcome.

“This case was always about Peter Dunn trying to restore his otherwise impeccable reputation that he spent over 20 years at CBS developing,” Hutcher said.

“We are grateful that the original arbitrator and that the appeals panel agreed with Mr. Dunn that he had been wrongfully terminated, and that we look forward to the award being confirmed in the Supreme Court so that we can enforce this judgment.”

A CBS spokesperson said, “We stand by the findings of our third-party investigation and the decision made to terminate Mr. Dunn for cause. We’re grateful for the many voices who spoke up in a process that led to significant cultural change at our television stations.”

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