Newswoman Wins $8M Lawsuit

A Hartford, Connecticut television station has lost a federal sexual discrimination case and been ordered to pay a former employee over $8 million in damages.

CBS News Correspondent Diana Olick reports that Janet Peckinpaugh, a former newscaster at CBS affiliate WFSB-TV, had filed suit claiming she was fired from her job because of her gender, age, and her allegations that another news anchor tried to force himself on her.

It took a federal jury just six hours Thursday, to find that WFSB discriminated against the Peckinpaugh because of her sex. The panel dismissed charges that she was fired because of her age.

At the time of her dismissal, she was a key member in Hartford's top-ranked local newscast. "Why was I fired? Discrimination, retaliation, I was making a lot of money and I was 44 years old," Peckinpaugh says.

William Ryan, is president of Post-Newsweek, which owned WFSB when Peckinpaugh worked there, "I don't think at all that women don't have careers after forty years of age in this industry."

But the faces you see on television newscasts tell a different story.

Most local stations today use male-female anchor teams. Experts believe it makes the viewers find comfort in what looks like a friendly husband and wife. But while the man is allowed to grow old gracefully, with very few exceptions, the woman is not.

"The Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyers are few and far between," says Peckinpaugh. "They have earned their stripes and they have stayed there for a reason and that's all I m asking to do. I've earned my stripes too, and I want to stay."

The station says it will appeal.