Spanish American Sports Anchor Can Pursue Race, Contract Claims

Alabama’s WAKA-TV must defend against a Spanish American sports anchor’s claims he was mistreated based on race and that the station breached his contract, the Middle District of Alabama ruled.

Vince Lennon says Alabama Telecasters Inc., which does business as WAKA, lured him away from a Chattanooga, Tenn., station with the promise that he would be named sports director of a three-person department. But once there, he faced harassment by WAKA’s news operations manager and 5 p.m. news co-anchor Jeff Sanders, who allegedly told Lennon repeatedly to “stop speaking spic” and Mexican, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District ...