Bell case on hold

US Magistrate Judge Cynthia Reed Eddy has placed a stay on the race discrimination case Wendy Bell filed against her former employer, WTAE-TV. The judge has given Bell and her lawyer until August 21 to file an amended complaint to include a gender claim.

Bell sued Hearst last summer after she was fired for a Facebook posting that speculated about the race and backgrounds of suspects in a Wilkinsburg mass shooting in March of 2016. The post attracted comments from followers and non-followers alike, many of whom said the comments were racist and that the anchor should be fired. The station did fire Bell, but not because of her race, rather because the post did not meet with Hearst’s ethics and journalistic standards.

Bell meanwhile claims she wouldn’t have been fired if she was black and, in a complaint filed with the Equal Opportunity Commission, claimed it was because she’s a woman. That claim was to be added to the case but never was.

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