[ad_1]
Weather: Patches of dense fog in the morning, and a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. (Yes, we’re over this June gloom, too.) Otherwise, cloudy, with a high in the upper 70s.
Alternate-side parking: In effect until July 4.
Does anybody not love New York City’s first 24-hour local news television station?
But despite the station’s friendly public image, some employees are alleging that management is systematically pushing out older female journalists in favor of younger, less experienced ones.
What happened?
Five anchorwomen at NY1 filed a lawsuit yesterday against the network, claiming age and gender discrimination.
The women — Roma Torre, Amanda Farinacci, Vivian Lee, Jeanine Ramirez and Kristen Shaughnessy — are 40 to 61 years old.
They said the leadership team installed by Charter Communications, NY1’s parent company, had reduced their airtime and anchoring slots, excluded them from promotional campaigns and ignored their concerns.
A Charter spokeswoman, Maureen Huff, said in a statement that the company was taking the allegations seriously, adding, “As we complete our thorough review, we have not found any merit to them.”
What prompted the women to sue now?
After Charter purchased NY1 in 2016, the five anchorwomen saw their work opportunities erode, according to Douglas Wigdor, the lawyer representing the women.
“In the media world, you can’t fight sexism without also fighting ageism,” Mr. Wigdor said in an interview yesterday. “Men get gray, they put on weight, they become somewhat disheveled in appearance, but nonetheless are still out there anchoring and are sort of statesmen.”
Women, he added, “tend to get pushed off the air because of the belief that viewers don’t want to see older women, they want to see more attractive women.”
The allegations against NY1 were jarring, he said, because the station prided itself on having “people presenting news who looked like New Yorkers — and New Yorkers include older women.”
More than half of the station’s on-air talent are women, Ms. Huff said in a statement. More than half of the talent are older than 40, and a quarter are women over 40, she said.
Why the suit might matter to you
New Yorkers watch the local news because its anchors and reporters know our city. Local elections? A water main break? A missing dog? You don’t turn to Anderson, Wolf or Gayle. You turn to Pat and Jamie. Or Errol, Cheryl, Roger and Ruschell.
[Read about The Times’s “The Truth is Local” campaign.]
When newsrooms change who is on air, the results are immediately visible.
The final push to legal marijuana in New York failed.
Nxivm’s Keith Raniere was convicted in a trial exposing the sex cult’s inner workings.
‘Gay panic’ defenses are banned in New York murder cases.
[Want more news from New York and around the region? Check out our full coverage.]
The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.
What we’re reading
About a quarter of cyclists do not stop or even pause at red lights, according to a study of more than 4,000 bike riders in Manhattan. [Hunter College]
Who is financing the anti-vaccination movement? Significant money is coming from a wealthy couple in Manhattan. [Washington Post]
The Paris Theater, an art house cinema in Manhattan, may close in August. [Deadline]
Coming up today
The artist Pacifico Silano gives a tour of “Pacifico Silano: Speaking Little, Perhaps Not a Word,” an exhibition that explores the 1980s AIDS crisis, at the Block Gallery in Manhattan. 6 p.m. [Free]
Nakhane plays alternative rock and the Illustrious Blacks perform house-funk fusion at a show at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn. 7 p.m. [$20]
“Two Views: North Shore” is a photography exhibition that explores two perspectives of one place, the North Shore of Staten Island. The opening reception is at ArtSpace at Staten Island Arts. 7 p.m. [Free]
— Vivian Ewing
Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.
And finally: There was a beach in Battery Park City?
The Times’s Corey Kilgannon writes:
New Yorkers will go through a lot to make it to the beach — traffic, long train rides, big ferry lines — but there was a glorious stretch of years in the 1970s and 1980s when Lower Manhattan had its own substantial beach along the Hudson River.
It was a sandy landfill where developers were planning the Battery Park City residential high-rise complex, and was created partly with material excavated during the construction of the World Trade Center, which loomed just east of the expanse.
While never intended for public use, much of the 92-acre construction zone served as a refuge, during those pre-construction years, for urban sunbathers and a location for sculptures, beach volleyball, performance art and yoga classes, always with the twin towers as a backdrop.
[Read more about the beach in Battery Park City in Past Tense.]
Musicians practiced there, and conceptual artists used the area to display their work, including one who planted a 2-acre wheat field, playing upon the urban milieu.
The first buildings began opening in the early 1980s, marking the beginning of the end for the makeshift beach.
It’s Thursday — find your urban oasis.
Metropolitan Diary: Window seat
Dear Diary:
I am in my house in Brooklyn Heights when an unexpected rain hits. There is thunder and lightning. I go to the window to check it out.
Across the street, I see a boy, around 8, doing the same. He is sitting on a window seat with his headphones on. He is holding some kind of glowing device.
He looks at me and leaves the window briefly. He returns with an actual book that he holds up for me to see.
I give him a thumbs-up, and he grins.
— Vicky Schippers
New York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. Sign up here to get it by email. You can also find it at nytoday.com.
We’re experimenting with the format of New York Today. What would you like to see more (or less) of? Post a comment or email us: [email protected].
[ad_2]
Source link
