ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – Former KMOV anchor Larry Conners has filed a formal discrimination complaint with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights and EEOC against his bosses at the CBS affiliate. In the complaint he alleges that he was treated differently after complaining about discrepancies in pay between him and his co-anchor Vickie Newton in 2010. In his formal complaint, Connors states his problems with KMOV and its parent company Belo eventually led to arbitration.
Conners says he was demoted to the 6pm newscast after previously anchoring the 5pm, 6pm and 10pm newscasts. He was taken off covering breaking news stories in the field and offered a short-term contract of 16 months. He says other employees who had, “less experience, less seniority and lesser public recognition” were offered the prime anchoring spots and three year contracts.
He goes on to allege that station management directed him to read an inaccurate statement on air regarding his recent problems with the IRS. Those problems led to his eventual dismissal from KMOV. He was fired after a Facebook post. In it he asked whether some trouble he’s having with the IRS was made worse by a contentious interview he did with President Obama in April 2012. He says that since his flap on facebook about the IRS controversy station management have blocked access to the KMOV facebook page.
When reached for comment today, KMOV declined to speak on the discrimination complaint.
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