Anchor Sues Station, Blames Bosses “Discomfort Over the Increasingly High Profile of My Sexual Orientation”

By Chris Ariens 

Charles Perez, who hosted a syndicated talk show in the mid-90s, is suing his current employer Miami/Ft. Lauderdale ABC affiliate WPLG, for demoting him from main anchor to weekend anchor. The horror.

Perez, claims he was demoted, “because of their discomfort over the increasingly high profile of my sexual orientation.”

The station maintains they moved Perez to weekends in a cost-cutting move, leaving former MSNBC anchor Laurie Jennings as the solo anchor on the 6 & 11 newscasts — a practice more and more stations across the nation are doing.

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In the complaint, Perez says WPLG News Director Bill Pohovey told him in a March performance review that he was “too anchor-like and too ‘Brian Williams’ in my delivery.”

Wow. To be compared to the most-watched anchorman in America, an abomination.

A few weeks later, after a personal email about Perez trying to work through his “gender identity issues” was leaked to friends and colleagues, Pohovey called Perez into his office this time saying he came across “too soft,” didn’t sound “main anchor-like” and smiled too much with his co-anchor, Jennings.

“This is an outrageous accusation,” Pohovey said in a statement. “As a gay man myself, I can safely say the Station does not discriminate against gay people. Charles’ claim that the Station discriminates against gay people is untrue and offensive.”

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