Macklin sues Ch. 7 for age discrimination

Michael Macklin, 56, is a veteran reporter of Boston TV stations. (BILL BRETT FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE/file 2007)

Michael Macklin, former WHDH-TV (Channel 7) reporter, has filed an age discrimination suit against the station.

Macklin, 56, who worked at WHDH for 13 years, claims the station fired him last year after he complained that he was discriminated against because of his age. The suit, filed last week in Suffolk Superior Court, alleges that Channel 7's news director, Linda Miele, began cutting back on his work shifts in January 2006 while at the same time hiring several younger reporters. When Macklin questioned why he was passed over for a staff position, Miele told him she "did not think he was aggressive enough, and that he missed elements of stories that other stations did not," according to the suit, filed by Macklin's lawyers, Burns & Levinson. Macklin is seeking reinstatement, compensation, attorney's fees, and court costs.

Macklin, who lives in Boston, could not be reached for comment. His attorneys did not return calls or e-mails from the Globe.

Randi Goldklank, WHDH's general manager and vice president, said yesterday that she cannot comment on a pending lawsuit beyond saying, "We think it lacks merit."

Macklin, who grew up in North Andover, had previously worked at WBZ-TV (Channel 4) as a reporter. In 1994, WHDH hired him as a freelance reporter working a 40-hour, five-day week. In 1997, WHDH offered him a permanent full-time staff position with benefits, but he turned it down because it would eliminate overtime pay, according to the suit. That same year, he was suspended from his job after police arrested him on charges of assaulting his girlfriend during an argument and then dragging her from his apartment into a hallway.

Alan Schroeder, a broadcast journalism professor at Northeastern University, said it is unusual for a male TV reporter or anchor to sue for age discrimination. "Over the years, there have been a number of these lawsuits, but more with women than with men," he said. "Before, it was sort of the feeling that men were allowed to age gracefully in television news and women were not, but I think that has shifted. There is a little more parity."

Such cases are difficult to win, Schroeder said, because "you have to prove what was in the heads of management when they decided to get rid of the person in question."

Last November, former CNN anchor Marina Kolbe lost her age discrimination lawsuit against the cable news station. The jury decided that she lost her job because of average performance and not age. In 2006, Marilyn Mitze, a former health reporter for WSVN-TV in Miami, filed a charge of age discrimination against station owner Sunbeam Television Corp., which also owns WHDH, but the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dismissed it. In 1999, a jury ruled in the favor of former Hartford WFSB-TV anchor Janet Peckinpaugh and awarded her $3.7 million after she claimed she was fired because of her age.

Boston, the country's seventh TV news market in the country, has been a destination for TV reporters. Once they're hired by a local station, reporters and anchors tend to stay here a long time.

"For a market this size and a market with more established figures in it, Channel 7 is more unusual in its hiring of younger reporters," Schroeder said. "To some extent, the hiring of younger reporters is a business decision."

While the station has hired younger reporters in the last two years - including Brandon Rudat, Sorboni Banerjee, and Grant Greenberg - it is still home to a cadre of seasoned anchors and reporters. Randy Price, Victoria Block, Andy Hiller, and Hank Phillippi Ryan are all over the age of 40.

Even so, the suit comes as WHDH has been altering its news teams. This week the station announced it would replace Jonathan Hall, longtime anchor of "New England Today," with Adam Williams, 27. Hall, who is in his late 40s, will join the investigative unit with his own brand segment, "Hall of Shame." Last fall, WHDH swapped Christa Delcamp, a weekday anchor for Today New England, with Anne Allred, 26. Delcamp, 37, now works as a general assignment weekday reporter and anchors on the weekends.

Goldklank said the station routinely adjusts anchor teams or reassigns reporters and doesn't consider age as a motivating factor. "We are constantly evaluating our product," Goldklank said. "And we have been studying the early morning for a while. This is a change in a series of changes that we have made throughout the last few months. We are always trying to make our product better."

Johnny Diaz can be reached at jodiaz@globe.com

Correction: Because of an editing error, the surname of Miami TV reporter Marilyn Mitzel was misspelled in a story in Saturday's Living/Arts section about former WHDH-TV reporter Michael Macklin filing an age discrimination suit against the station.