Christine Craft

Christine Craft (born 1944) is a radio talk show host and former television anchorperson. She became known in the broadcast industry for her age and sexual discrimination lawsuit against a station which had demoted her from the news anchor position because of her age.

Craft was a competitive surfer in the Santa Barbara area. In 1974 she took a position as a weather reporter at KSBW-TV in Salinas, California. While working for KSBW, she served in a variety of reporting roles, including news reporting and sports. She moved from KSBW to the CBS affiliate, KPIX-TV, in San Francisco, where she worked in much the same capacity.

In 1977, CBS hired her to do a segment for their CBS Sports Spectacular program on women in sports. As part of her on-air reporting, she was required to undergo a make-over, including having her hair bleached to look platinum blond. She later reported that she hated the experience.

After leaving CBS, she worked at a number of stations in California, including KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara. After a year at KEYT, she moved to Kansas City to work for the Metromedia, Inc. ABC affiliate, KMBC-TV. Craft claims that, unbeknownst to her, a media consulting company had made a tape of her, and had shopped it around to several stations throughout the country, inclduing KMBC. Executives at KMBC asked her to come to Kansas City for an interview, and hired her, even though she claims that she told the station management that she "showed signs of her age and experience", and was not willing to be made over.

After eight months of her two-year contract with KMBC, she was removed from the anchor position, because a focus group had determined that she was "too old, too unattractive and wouldn't defer to men." Craft refused to accept the promotion, and went public with her disagreement with the station with an interview in a local newspaper. She left the station and returned to television in Santa Barbara.

While working in Santa Barbara, she filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Metromedia. In 1983, a federal jury in Kansas City awarded her $500,000 in damages. The Federal Judge overturned the award and ordered a second trial, this time in Joplin, Missouri. The second jury also awarded her the same $500,000. Metromedia appealed the decision, and the 8th Circuit Court overturned the decision. Craft's appeal to the United States Supreme Court was denied.

Following the trial, Craft wrote a book, Too Old, Too Ugly, and Not Deferential to Men (ISBN 0914629654) detailing her experiences.

Craft currently works as a radio talk show host in radio stations in San Francisco and Sacramento, where she espouses liberal causes. In 2007 following the death of Jerry Falwell, Craft was criticized by conservatives for the apparent glee with which she reported his death [1].

References

• Craft, Christine at The Museum of Broadcast Communications

Further reading

• Lowe, Denise, Women and American Television, An Encyclopedia, ISBN 0874369703

External links

• Christine Craft's page at KSAC radio's website
• Christine Craft's page at KGO radio's website

Images

• An image of Christine Craft at the Sacramento Bee's webpage