FOX Golf Reporter Holly Sonders Cited in Age-Discrimination Lawsuit Against the Network

[mvmac]

http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/holly-sonders-cited-within-age-discrimination-lawsuit-against-fox-sports

Quote

In the lawsuit Dominguez alleges that "[Sonders] has no experience with the NFL, yet FOX has assigned Sonders to cover the 2015 NFL season. Dominguez is not receiving any NFL assignments although she has substantial experience covering the NFL."

When reached by GOLF.com, Sonders declined to comment about the lawsuit.

Sonders handled post-round interviews for FOX at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, but was “reassigned” to a slightly different role before the U.S. Women's Open. Then, in September, Sonders made her NFL debut covering a Week 3 game between Tampa Bay and Houston.

According to Sonders’ bio on foxsports.com, Sonders has televison experience in soccer and golf. There is no mention of football.

Dominguez also alleges in the lawsuit that she landed an interview with four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, but FOX declined to approve the interview, as well as another one with San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner, on the grounds that "those interviews would 'muddy the waters' for FOX's other reporters."

 

[No Mulligans]

The reality is that looks matter when you have a job in front of a camera.  Much more for women than men.  It's unfortunate but I see it all the time.  If I scan all the morning local news shows in San Diego, all the women are young and very attractive.  I wonder what happened to all the past female newscasters that have gotten older.  If Dominguez has a case then there are a lot of other potential cases for the same thing out there.

Of course filing a lawsuit doesn't mean she has a legitimate case.  There's a lot of attorneys that make a living from filing frivolous lawsuits that mostly settle out of court.  Often the best course of action for the defendant is to just settle as opposed to amassing large legal fees in a drawn out battle.  The plaintiff attorneys know this and take advantage of it.

[DrvFrShow]

Yeah, they don't like to put older women in front of the camera. It's not Sonder's fault, but rather FOX Network management. Men can get away with looking older, but women have to go under the knife and have cosmetic surgery to look younger. It really sucks. Dominguez will win in Federal Court, but this case won't even get that far. Look for FOX to tender a very lucrative settlement for an undisclosed amount and gag order to make this go away and absolve themselves of any wrongdoing.

Edited December 18, 2015 by DrvFrShow

[No Mulligans]

4 minutes ago, DrvFrShow said:

Yeah, they don't like to put older women in front of the camera. It's not Sonder's fault, but rather FOX Network management. Men can get away with looking older, but women have to go under the knife and have cosmetic surgery to look younger. It really sucks. Dominguez will win in Federal Court, but this case won't even get that far. Look for FOX to tender a very lucrative settlement offer to make this go away and absolve themselves of any wrongdoing.

I agree with the part in bold.  I don't agree that she would win in Federal Court though.  I also agree on the settlement, but I think it will be to avoid legal fees.  I doubt Fox thinks they did anything wrong.  

[DaveP043]

The thing is, this isn't "age discrimination", its "appearance discrimination".  Its not fair, but it may not really be actionable under the laws.  Of course, anyone can file a suit, and its quite possible, or even probable, that Fox will settle just to get the case to go away.  No matter what, Ms. Sonders isn't the one to blame, its the Fox Sports management who decide which personnel to assign where.

[DrvFrShow]

It's age discrimination. Let's not mince words. There are laws against age discrimination, and if Dominguez can show a pattern - like if these things were later done by younger reporters, or even male reporters, she will have a solid case. Lawyers usually don't advise filing suit unless there are some legal grounds for it. Cases like this are done on contingency, but Dominguez pays the fees if she loses - and she pays FOX's attorney fees if she loses as well. However, if she wins, her attorney gets a percentage of her settlement. So there must be a legal precedence for this suit already on the books in case law. Sonders is mentioned just because she's the one taking her job. 

[Mr. Desmond]

I did not know that Sonders was still around ... haven't seen her in ages. But I've seen the lips ... the lips are thicker, the hoo-haws are still the hoo-haws.

Lawsuits ... Not being a litigator, I think you gotta' have a pattern without some business reason for the plaintiff ... For Fox, gotta' have studies, focus groups, ratings stats to prove this reporter was not getting the goods, and this one (the younger one with the hoo-haws) was delivering the goods. I would boil it down to this one reporter and have good business reasons behind the decisions.

[rkim291968]

I think she may have a better chance at gender discrimination than age.  Both are hard to win against, and many settle out of court.   Without really understand all the facts, I am puzzled by Sonders' action as if she didn't really know it's the looks that counts when it comes to women in front of camera. 

[Golfingdad]

57 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

The thing is, this isn't "age discrimination", its "appearance discrimination".  Its not fair, but it may not really be actionable under the laws.  Of course, anyone can file a suit, and its quite possible, or even probable, that Fox will settle just to get the case to go away.  No matter what, Ms. Sonders isn't the one to blame, its the Fox Sports management who decide which personnel to assign where.

I pretty much agree with you.  I was going to say "wholeheartedly" but then I decided to google images of Colleen Dominguez.  She ain't lacking in the looks department.

In general, this is a weird subject when it comes to people in show business.  They play by a whole separate set of rules than the rest of us where looks and sex appeal and all of that stuff matter a great deal.

[GolfLug]

58 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

I pretty much agree with you.  I was going to say "wholeheartedly" but then I decided to google images of Colleen Dominguez.  She ain't lacking in the looks department.

In general, this is a weird subject when it comes to people in show business.  They play by a whole separate set of rules than the rest of us where looks and sex appeal and all of that stuff matter a great deal.

They play by set of rules that rest of us coin for them with viewership. Somewhere in the nether world Sig Freud is smiling.

[DaveP043]

Maybe its simply "name-recognition" discrimination.  I agree, Ms. Dominguez isn't unattractive at all.  However, of the two, I recognize Ms. Sonders' name.  If her name brings more viewers to the broadcast, then they've done what's right for the company.  The job of Fox Sports, or any other for-profit network, is to attract viewers, which in turn brings more advertising revenue.  It's not to broadcast the truth, it's not to inform, it's to attract viewers. Based on what I've seen, Ms. Dominguez is almost certainly a more accomplished journalist than Ms. Sonders, but that's not what brings in viewers.

[Valleygolfer]

She has no chance. There is a pattern. It's because it happens all the time. Male viewers get bored with the same female analyst and want something new, I am sure there is a poll out there that says the audience would rather see plastic old Holly cover interviews. She has run her course. Sports is a male dominated audience.

 This is all women's fault to be truthful. Case in point, "The View" is largely staffed by aging "undesirable" (by media standards) women. Men do not watch this show. Hell they forced out the old attractive girl on the panel because women hate other women, especially if they are prettier than they are. What I am saying is none of these girls would last five minutes on Sportscenter, even with an encyclopedia of knowledge on every sporting event in the world.

If women would stop seeing old guys like Harrison Ford and Clooney as sexy, you could get some fresh meat too...

NSFW: This explains it from women's side...

 

[No Mulligans]

I was wrong, these cases are sometimes won in court.  And sometimes lost...

Interesting about the use of a focus group to potentially protect the network.

From this article: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/news-articles/age-old-problem/108529

Quote

A few female TV journalists have taken their age-discrimination complaints against their former employers all the way to trial and won. Janet Peckinpaugh, former anchor at WFSB Hartford, Conn., was awarded $8.3 million in an age- and sex-discrimination case against Post-Newsweek in 1999. (A judge later halved the amount, and the two parties settled out of court.) Former anchor Sara Lee Kessler won $7 million in an age/sex/religion/disability lawsuit against WWOR New York, also in 1999.

But the pioneer in age-discrimination cases, Christine Craft, ended up losing her discrimination suit against Metromedia in Kansas City in the 1980s. She said she was demoted from anchor to reporter at age 36 after station management told her that focus groups said she was “too old, too unattractive and not deferential enough to men.” Craft's initial, much publicized courtroom victory was later overturned and her appeal rejected by the Supreme Court.

 

[rkim291968]

2 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

 

In general, this is a weird subject when it comes to people in show business.  They play by a whole separate set of rules than the rest of us where looks and sex appeal and all of that stuff matter a great deal.

They play by the same rule.  Greed.  They made a business decision.  

[Golfingdad]

3 minutes ago, rkim291968 said:

They play by the same rule.  Greed.  They made a business decision.  

That's not really what I meant when I wrote that.  The rules about discrimination (and sexual harrassment, as another example) just apply differently, I believe, on TV.  

[DrvFrShow]

48 minutes ago, Valleygolfer said:

 

NSFW: This explains it from women's side...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPpsI8mWKmg

Video is awesome..... go home and wax my beard. lol.

Edited December 18, 2015 by DrvFrShow

[RFKFREAK]

1 hour ago, DaveP043 said:

Maybe its simply "name-recognition" discrimination.  I agree, Ms. Dominguez isn't unattractive at all.  However, of the two, I recognize Ms. Sonders' name.  If her name brings more viewers to the broadcast, then they've done what's right for the company.  The job of Fox Sports, or any other for-profit network, is to attract viewers, which in turn brings more advertising revenue.  It's not to broadcast the truth, it's not to inform, it's to attract viewers. Based on what I've seen, Ms. Dominguez is almost certainly a more accomplished journalist than Ms. Sonders, but that's not what brings in viewers.

With respect to Ms. Sonders covering a week 3 NFL game, considering the primary viewership came from the Tampa Bay and Houston markets I highly doubt she pulled in many, if any, viewers.  I would be willing to bet that the majority of people that watched that game were either fans of one of the two teams team or had some interest in the game that had a gambling component like a player on their fantasy team or a wager on the game.  

Besides that, I don't think NFL fans get pulled in by the looks of a sideline reporter.  Most of the time, they pretty much get camera time at the start of the game, at the end of a first half, the beginning of the second half, and maybe if there is someone prominent on the sideline or in a post game interview.  That probably totals less than 5 minutes of face time in front of the camera 

 

51 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

That's not really what I meant when I wrote that.  The rules about discrimination (and sexual harrassment, as another example) just apply differently, I believe, on TV.  

 

In theory, though, it shouldn't.  They're a business that I believe should be held to the same standard with respect to anti-discrimination laws as other businesses.  Like you, I was curious about what Ms. Dominguez looked like and did a GIS of her.  Unattractive she is not, however, I can see Fox making a change due to Ms. Dominguez being older than Ms. Sonders because they're Fox.  Although I'm not a huge fan of ESPN, I respect the fact that they have women in their late forties and fifties like Hannah Storm, Suzy Kolber, Lisa Salters, and Linda Cohn in prominent positions on the network.

I also found it interesting that Golf.com used a picture of Sonders which can be perceived as a picture of her with her tongue running along her lips.  I'm sure it was just a coincidence and wasn't done on purpose, though. 

[Mr22putt]

Hmmmm....sounds like a case of sour grapes.

Either Colleen's contract was not renewed or she was fired for reasons we won't know....and now she's suing.

If FOX was so discriminatory about female age....then why did they hire her in 2014 as a 53 turning 54 year old woman.

This will settle out of court but after lawyer's fees....Colleen won't come out with as much as she thinks....especially if her FOX contract was short term.