Two former employees of a major metropolitan newspaper in Indiana are charging in a federal lawsuit that they were demoted and fired for their Christian beliefs.
James Patterson and Lisa Coffey worked for years on the editorial board of The Indianapolis News. They were transferred to the sister paper, The Indianapolis Star, when the News folded. But in a Title VII religious discrimination lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Coffey and Patterson claim that, when the newspaper was bought by the Gannett publishing company, homosexual and pro-homosexual management were installed. Both Coffey and Patterson had excellent performance reviews for years. But according to Coffey, she was demoted and he was eventually terminated because of their evangelical Christian beliefs. And, although attorneys for the newspaper have offered to settle, she says she and Patterson feel it is important that this case go to court.
Coffey discusses in the report recent efforts by the Star's attorneys to seal court records in which the plaintiffs discuss the alleged homosexuality of specific members of the Star's management and staff. She explains how she and Patterson cannot possibly prove their discrimination unless they can talk about the homosexuals at the Star:
"The Indianapolis Star has filed a motion to seal all information regarding the gay lifestyles of Star managers involved in this suit," Coffey notes. "They're calling it a trade secret, and they're filing a motion to seal all that information to preclude us from even bringing this up as part of our testimony, which really is silly, because it's the whole basis of our suit -- that that's the reason why we were forced out of the department."
Coffey removes any doubt that this lawsuit is part of the Christian right's agenda to influence the editorial content of the newspaper, and that it has absolutely nothing to do with religious discrimination. She explains to Agape News:
Most people fail to realize, the former Star employee contends, how the secular media is promoting the de-Christianization of America. "This whole issue is so much bigger than two people or a newspaper," she says. "It's really about media control. It's about the growing monopolization of the press by media giants who are systematically buying up television, radio, Internet, newspaper outlets."
Coffey says there is "just a shrinking handful of those media giants" that are basically in control of all the information that most of the public sees in the news today. She is hopeful that the lawsuit she and Patterson have brought against the Star will not only vindicate the two of them but also help bring this secularist monopolization of the media to light.
Thanks for clearing up what your true agenda is all about Lisa.
5 comments:
Shocking stuff.
But if you remove the local knowledge from this case, it presents some unusual situations.
If we push for non-discrimination because of sexual preference, isn't the Coffey-Patterson position (distasteful tho it is), a close cousin?
It sure seems like it.
And in the hands of a mediocre judge, it might be.
If we demand equal treatment and non-discrimination, and IF Coffey-Patterson were fired strictly because they're not ideologically aligned with management's views, isn't that discrimination, too?
It's kinda like the ACLU defending the Klan's right to march. You know, hate the message, defend the messenger?
As much as I hate the message, this is a tough case.
Let's hope they settle out of court.
They weren't really good writers, anyway...Russ Pulliam is better, and that's not saying much at all.
Do you know Gary, is this a federal case, or county?
Excellent post.
are you aware that the Star actually accepts advertisements for PORK? In Leviticus, that is sooo forbidden! it just proves that Baal and Mammon have taken over the Star and want to drive out true Christians!
So now emplyers have to put up with employees doing whatever nutty stuff they wish on the job if somebody somewhere can find Biblical justification for it? Do Pentecostal retail clerks have to put down their snakes around squeamish customers?
They originally filed an EEOC complaint with the Indianapolis office. The EEOC concluded that the Star had not discriminated against them because of their religion and issued Patterson and Coffey a right to sue letter. Their attorney, John Price, filed the religious discrimination complaint in the federal district court for Southern Indiana here.
Coffey and Patterson were editorial writers hired when the Pulliam family still owned the Star. Gannett's management no doubt took the Star's editorial position towards the mainstream as opposed to the far right positions it took under the Pulliam family. Coffey and Patterson were no longer free to write the knee-jerk, right wing crap they were accustom to writing. They equate that to religious discrimination. Ever newspaper's editorial position has a political bent one way or the other to it. If Coffey and Patterson didn't like it, they should have chosen a newspaper with their ideological bent to work for. To their way of thinking, if the newspaper didn't write right-wing editorials, it was anti-Christian.
Everybody has to have a schtik!
Everybody has to have a schtik!
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