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Tammy Dombeck, CBS 11 settle age-discrimination lawsuit over rookie traffic reporter’s hiring

She worked for Channel 11 as a 'freelance, non-staff traffic reporter' beginning in February 2013. She applied for the full-time job, but it went to a 24-year-old.

A local CBS affiliate will pay $215,000 to settle an age discrimination lawsuit over allegations that it refused to hire a longtime traffic reporter because of her age, according to federal authorities.

KTVT-TV (Channel 11) violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act when it hired a younger, less experienced reporter for the full-time traffic position in 2015 instead of Tammy Dombeck, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged in the lawsuit.

Dombeck, 47, started working for the Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate as a freelance, nonstaff traffic reporter handling “fill-in work” in February 2013. After CBS 11′s morning full-time traffic reporter resigned in October 2014, Dombeck told the station’s management that she was interested in the position and applied for the job.

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The job announcement said the “ideal candidate” should have “strong knowledge of local traffic in the Dallas/Fort Worth area” as well as at least five years of “professional broadcasting experience.” But CBS 11 hired a 24-year-old former NFL cheerleader, Chelsey Davis, who had never been to Dallas and didn’t have any broadcast experience in the region, the EEOC said.

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Months earlier, CBS 11 had offered the job to a 27-year old applicant who had never been to Dallas and who was described by the station’s general manager as “a little rusty and light on energy.” She accepted the job and then withdrew days later, the EEOC said. The woman “could not identify any major road or highway” in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to the EEOC.

Before filling in at Channel 11, Dombeck had worked for 12 years as a “Gridlock Buster” traffic reporter at KXAS-TV (NBC5). When reached by phone Tuesday, Dombeck said she was not yet ready to comment.

Tammy Dombeck
Tammy Dombeck(Clint Swisher / Dallas Headshots)

“Tammy [Dombeck] Campbell was clearly qualified for the position of traffic reporter,” Joel Clark, EEOC senior trial attorney for the Dallas office, said in a statement. “The EEOC argued to the court that CBS 11 preferred a younger, less qualified applicant, and that the employer defaulted to unfounded stereotypes about female reporters.”

Through its lawyer, KTVT issued the following statement on Tuesday: “We are pleased this matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.”

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The EEOC filed the lawsuit in 2017 in Dallas against CBS Stations Group of Texas, which includes KTVT-TV and KTXA-TV (Channel 21), under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which prohibits discrimination against people age 40 or older.

CBS Stations Group of Texas is a division of CBS Corp. of New York. The company operates almost 30 TV stations nationwide including KTVT, known locally as CBS 11.

The companies said in court filings that the EEOC had failed to produce any evidence of age bias in KTVT’s hiring decisions for the full-time traffic reporter position.

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“During her tenure, KTVT had concerns about Dombeck’s professionalism and presentation on air,” Melissa M. Goodman, lead attorney for the defendants, said in a court filing. “KTVT’s viewers shared the station’s concerns — KTVT received an unusual and alarming amount of negative viewer feedback regarding Dombeck.”

The terms of the settlement were spelled out in a consent decree approved on Sunday by U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn. In addition to paying $215,000 to Dombeck, the defendants will have to provide training on the anti-discrimination law, publish a notice of employee rights and report to the EEOC how they are following the requirements of the consent decree, authorities said.

In signing the agreement, which is effective for 18 months, the defendants said they made no admission of liability or wrongdoing.

The EEOC disputed the station’s contention that Dombeck was not well received by viewers. Clark, the agency’s attorney, pointed out in court filings that KTVT’s president and general manager, Gary Schneider, said Dombeck received “substantial positive viewer feedback.”

And the station’s former news director, Mike Garber, said in a deposition that Dombeck was the most experienced candidate to apply for the full-time traffic reporter position, according to Clark’s court filings.

Garber emailed David Friend, CBS senior vice president of news, about Davis on Feb. 19, 2015, court records show. He did not mention her lack of five years of broadcast journalism experience in the email, but he did note that she had experience as an NFL cheerleader, the EEOC says. The subject line of his email to Friend said: “Is this what you wanted me to find?”

“Friend’s immediate response to Garber was ‘Sign her,’” according to the EEOC.

KTVT-TV management admitted that the traffic reporting job is “not about experience in reporting traffic,” the EEOC said. And the general manager said the station hired at least two traffic reporters who had no experience in the job, the EEOC attorneys wrote in court documents.

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Friend, Schneider and Garber could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

Dombeck, who had a total of 15 years’ experience in the local market at the time and high praise from colleagues, viewers and supervisors, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in April 2015 that she was frustrated about being passed over.

“All the girls they auditioned for this job were in their 20s,” she told the paper in an email. “I didn’t have a chance.”

EEOC Regional Attorney Robert A. Canino said in a statement that age factored into CBS 11′s hiring process.

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“We hope that the resolution of this case will be another step forward in moving past ageist attitudes that can limit opportunities in the field of broadcast television,” he said.