From a mass shooting to a lawsuit, Wendy Bell’s responses to controversy have proven to be tone-deaf.
On Monday, former WTAE news anchor Wendy Bell filed a federal lawsuit against Hearst Communications, the parent company of WTAE, for race discrimination in her March firing from the station. Bell’s dismissal followed a Facebook post she made in response to the Wilkinsburg mass shooting on March 9, in which gunmen killed six people and injured five others during a backyard picnic.
Before the police department made any arrests or announced suspects related to the killings, Bell speculated that “[the perpetrators] are young black men, likely teens or in their early 20s. They have multiple siblings from multiple fathers and their mothers work multiple jobs.”
Resounding backlash and complaints soon followed, and WTAE fired Bell for violating the company’s ethics and journalistic standards.
Now, instead of acknowledging that her racially insensitive remarks were offensive to people of color and against journalistic ethics, she is fighting back with a lawsuit that will attempt to portray her as the victim. By making the case that WTAE would not have fired her if she were black, she is attempting to absolve herself of culpability and showing that over the course of her public downfall, she has learned absolutely nothing.
If she had not racially profiled the suspects and made demeaning assumptions in the first place, she would not be in this situation. Her removal of the post and apology for the comments were intended to show that she recognized the harm she caused by making such statements. This lawsuit defending her actions only demonstrates that these empty gestures were not genuine and that she still does not get it.
She does not understand the lack of integrity she demonstrated as a well-known broadcast journalist, a role in which the public trusts her to objectively present factual information. By publishing a baseless opinion on her public WTAE Facebook account, she neglected that responsibility.
If she truly recognized the damage she caused by reinforcing negative stereotypes and false judgments of people of color, then this lawsuit would not exist. Her handling of these missteps has been as thoughtless as the words that caused them.
To suggest that one is being discriminated against for being white simply ignores this country’s history of racism. By insisting that she did no wrong, Bell is misleading her viewers about what discrimination really is. She is justifying the complaint that members of the media misunderstand how to portray communities of color by showing that she doesn’t even understand the problems they face.
If Bell had admitted her mistake, spoken out against what she had said and taken steps to improve her awareness of racial issues, perhaps the response would be more forgiving.
Perhaps then she would actually deserve the forgiveness — or the vindication — she’s demanding.