Lawyer: TV anchor lost career after using racial epithet in meeting because he was white
PHILADELPHIA – A lawyer for a white former TV anchor says he wouldn’t have lost his career after using a racial epithet at a Philadelphia station if he were black.
Fifty-three-year-old Tom Burlington has been working in real estate since losing his job at the local Fox station in 2007.
His lawyer says he apologized after using the N-word during a newsroom discussion of a story on the epithet.
She says in closing arguments Monday that a double standard protected black co-workers who said it.
A lawyer for Fox says no one wanted to fire Burlington.
But he says the weekend anchor continued to press his point by using it several times and calling it “meaningless.”
Managers say Burlington was never fired and paid through the end of his contract with WTXF-TV.
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