Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, July 26, 1983
Newswoman sues for
sexual discrimination
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (UPI) - Jurors
were being selected yesterday to hear a
$1.2 million sex discrimination suit filed
by a former television news anchor-
woman who may call a governor and a
national TV critic as witnesses.
More than 60 people -including Kan-
sas Gov. John Carlin and media critic,
Ron Powers - may testify for Christine
Craft, the 38-year-old former anchor for
KMBC-TV who claims she lost her job
because she was not a beauty queen.
CRAFT HAS alleged that officials for
Metromedia Inc., former owner of the
television station, dropped her from the
prime-time job Aug. 14, 1981, because
she was regarded as too old, too unat-
tractive, and "not deferential" enough
for men on the air.
Craft, now an anchor at KEYT-TV in
Santa Barbara, Calif., will contend in
the trial that her treatment in Kansas
City was due to a double standard
women reporters must face in
television news - that men can age
gracefully whilewomen only get old.
Selection of six jurors began yester-
day from a pool of 40 men and women.
AMONG THE list of possible wit-
nesses was Scott Feldman, Craft's co-
anchor at the time, and women anchors
from two other television stations in the
city, Anne Peterson and Cynthia Smith.
Powers and at least 10 anchors and
reporters from the KMBC television
station were also on the list.
Carlin and one of his aides, Bill Koch,
also may testify during the trial, which
U.S. Judge Joseph Stevens said yester-
day may take 8-10 days.
"PEOPLE IN anchor positions
deserve to be journalists, not beauty
queens," Craft said in a recent inter-
view.
Craft declined to comment about the
case yesterday on the advice of her at-
torneys. Metromedia Inc. has declined
comment about the suit since it was
filed in January, saying it will answer
Craft in court.
The unusual federal civil suit could
have a dramatic affect on the way
television stations choose and dismiss
on-screen reporters and news anchors.
KMBC hired Craft in December 1980 to
co-anchor the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
newscasts with Feldman, but, after an
August 1981 audience survey, she was
demoted to reporter.
The defense contends she left the
station of her own volition. But Craft's
suit contends she was fired form the
position for which she was hired.
Craft is seeking reinstatement to the
.co-anchor position, lost wages and
benefits and damages equal to that,
$200,000 in actual damages and $1
million in punitive damages for the
alleged fraud and misrepresentation.
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Compiled from Associated Press and
United Press international reports
Anti-Reagan protest draws few
PORT CHICAGO, Ca if. - An anti-Reagan demonstration that supporters
said would draw thousands fizzled yesterday when only 150 protesters
showed up to blockade the gates of the Concord Naval Weapons Center.
Police said five demonstrators were arrested for trespassing.
Organizers of the protest over U.S. involvement in Central America had
announced that thousands of demonstrators would show up for a blockade of
the three gates to the sprawling weapons storage area 30 miles east of San
Francisco.
The group blocked access to the main entrance, but only a few base em-
ployees were forced to use other gates.
The station reportedly is one of the main loading docks for the shipment of
U.S. weapons destined for Central American countries.
A force of California Highway Patrolmen, county sheriff's deputies, and
Concord police guarded the perimeter of the facility and "a combat-ready
infantry battalion of Marines" was stationed inside, said Navy spokesman
Dan Tikalsky.
Sponsored by the Port Chicago Campaign, a loose amalgam of about 15 an-
ti-nuclear and peace groups, the demonstration began Sunday when about
3,000 protesters waving banners and chanting slogans gathered at a Concord
city park and chanted "No draft, no war, U.S. out of El Salvador" while
several speakers explained their opposition to Reagan administration
policies in El Salvador.
Pardon frees Polish prisoners
WARSAW, Poland - More than 100 political prisoners and common crim-
inals were released from at least nine jails across Poland yesterday under
the government amnesty program linked to the lifthg of martial law.
Justice Ministry officials assigned to collect prisoner-release data from
around the country said 57 political offenders had received full or partial
pardons, but they were unable to confirm whether they were already freed.
The ministry office in Warsaw said another 57 people charged with com-
mon crimes also benefited from the amnesty decree - one man was kept in
prison on a reduced sentence, but the others were freed.
Government officials said 650 political prisoners were in Polish jails at the
time martial law was lifted last week after 19 months. They indicated at
least 60 of those would be ruled ineligible for the amnesty program.
Justice Minister Sylwester Zawadzki said in an interview last week up to
an additional 1,000 common criminals could be pardoned "for humanitarian
reasons" under the decree signed by Gen. Wojiech Jaruzelski.
Reagan to meet with top Israelis
WASHINGTON - President Reagan, facing a deteriorating situation in
Lebanon, will meet with two top Israeli officials to discuss Israel's planned
pull-back from embattled areas of the country, while he sends his new
Mideast envoy to Damascus to press again for Syria's cooperation.
U.S. sources said yesterday the Reagan administration will try to per-
suade Israel to delay the pull-back to allow for more time to work out new
security arrangementa for the areas Israel will evaduate, particularly in the
Chouf region east of Beirut.
However, reports in Israel have already said the country plans to reject
U.S. pleas and begin pulling back its forces as early as next week.
Reagan asked for the visit by Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir and
Defense Minister Moshe Arens after President Menachem Begin cancelled a
trip he had planned this week.
Shamir and Arens will begin three days of intensive meetings with
Secretary of State George Shultz and other officials today.
They also are expected to confer with Reagan's new Mideast peace envoy,
Robert McFarlane, named to the post last week.
Reagan, Kissinger seek solution
to Central American turmoil
WASHINGTON - President Reagan and Henry Kissinger met yesterday
to search for solutions to Central American turmoil as critics warned again-
st an "unneeded show of strength" in the region.
Reagan called Kissinger to the Oval Office to discuss how the presidential
commission the former secretary of state is heading will come up with
recommendations to ease the economic and social ills that underlie troubles
in the hemisphere.
But the public stress on non-military solutions to what Reagan has termed
"the first real communist aggression on the American mainland" was offset
by a growing controversy over upcoming military exercises in the area and
a new report of plans to step up covert paramilitary activity against
Nicaragua.
That activity includes a report from Pentagon sources that the battleship
New Jersey headed across the Pacific to join the aircraft carrier Ranger and
seven other vessels of the west coast of Central America yesterday "to un-
derscore U.S. support of friendly countries."
Sources reported Pentagon suggestions that the number of U.S. military
advisers in El Salvador - now 55 - be doubled. The Pentagon also announ-
ced that U.S. military forces will carry out joint exercises in Honduras, in-
cluding the first Marine amphibious landing there.
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