This was posted Wednesday, February 7, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
A federal judge in Atlanta this week dismissed a racial discrimination case filed by a CNN employee.
DeWayne Walker, an Atlanta-based manager of integrated marketing at CNN, originally filed his lawsuit more than two years ago. He claimed that he was passed over for jobs he felt he was qualified for because of his race.
Magistrate judge Catherine Salinas ruled that of the nine positions Walker claimed were not made available to him, he was not eligible for seven of them. Another position he didn't actually apply for. "He has not argued that it would have been futile for him to apply," she wrote. "As a result, Defendants are entitled to summary judgment on this failure-to-promote claim."
In the one position he did apply for, the white employee they did hire was demonstrably qualified and she could not find evidence that race was a factor.
"Plaintiff attempted to establish pretext by arguing that he was 'substantially
better' than Mr. [Stephen] Krill," Salinas wrote, "but given the undisputed evidence of Mr. Krill's qualifications for the position, Plaintiffs evidence is insufficient to defeat Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment."
Daniel Meachum, Walker's attorney, in 2016 filed a class-action discrimination case against Time Warner and Turner with two named plaintiffs. He claimed to have found more than 200 minority employees affected over the past 20 years, but that case was thrown out as well. Meachum has said he plans to refile a new suit with more evidence.
Meachum recently filed a racial discrimination case on behalf of a TBS employee.
