Christine Craft

Christine Craft, born in 1944, is an attorney, radio talk show host and former television news anchor. She became known in the broadcast industry for her age and sexual discrimination lawsuit against a station which had demoted her from news anchor to reporter.

Before TV

Craft was born in San Marino, California. After graduating college with a degree in English, she spent time as a classroom teacher and competitive surfer in the Santa Barbara area.

TV career

In 1974, Craft 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 then moved from KSBW to the CBS affiliate, KPIX-TV, in San Francisco, where she worked in much the same capacity.

In 1977, CBS hired Craft to do a women-in-sports segment for the CBS Sports Spectacular. As part of her on-air reporting, she was required to undergo a make-over, which included having her hair bleached platinum blonde. Craft later stated that she hated the experience. After a year at CBS, Craft returned to California where she again worked in several news positions which included being co-anchor for Santa Barbara's ABC affiliate, KEYT-TV

Craft continued with KEYT for several years before moving to Kansas City to work for the Metromedia, Inc. ABC affiliate, KMBC-TV. She 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, including KMBC. Executives at KMBC requested she come to Kansas City for an interview. Following the interview, she was hired. Craft claimed that at the time of her hiring she told the station management she "showed signs of her age and experience", and after the experience with CBS was not willing to once again be made over.

Too old, too unattractive and not deferential to men

In January 1981 Craft became co-anchor of KMBC-TV with Scott Feldman on the 6pm and 10 pm newscasts. The newscasts jumped from third to first in the ratings. . In August (eight months into her two-year contract) she was removed from the anchor position after a focus group had determined she was "too old, too unattractive and wouldn't defer to men." Craft refused to accept the demotion, 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, Craft filed a TITLE VII 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 and the 8th Circuit Court subsequently overturned the decision. Craft's appeal of the United States Supreme Court's decision was denied.

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

Aftermath, law school and talk-radio

Craft was named one of the top five collegiate speakers in the United States in 1984, and her story was featured in an exhibit at the Newseum Museum of Broadcasting in Washington, D.C.

After the trial, Craft continued doing television, anchoring the news at KRBK in Sacramento where she was also managing editor and went on to also do television programs for San Francisco's KQED. She then went to law school, graduating in 1995 from the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law, passing the California Bar that same year. During her time in law school in Sacramento, Craft first worked as a talk-radio host at KFBK.

Current life

In the Fall of 2007 Craft left her hosting duties at KSAC in Sacramento after a failure to reach a new contract with the station manager. Currently, Craft is a fill-in talk radio host at KGO in San Francisco and also practices worker's compensation and employment law at the law offices of Farrell, Fraulob and Brown in Sacramento. She is also involved in doing pro-bono work in the area of animal abuse and arguing for stronger statutes against such crimes.

Further reading

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

External links

• Christine Craft's page at KGO radio's website
• Transcript of radio discussion on sexual discrimination in the media
• New York Times article on first lawsuit
• "the pioneer in age-discrimination cases, Christine Craft"