ABC News has placed its head of talent on leave while it investigates her history of insensitive comments, HuffPost reports. Barbara Fedida, a senior executive at the network in charge of hiring, has cost the network millions in settlements with former employees who raised issues of insensitivity, outright racism, and even racial discrimination. “To say that she’s an abusive figure is an understatement,” one former employee told HuffPost. Anchor Robin Roberts, who is black, said that during contract negotiations in 2018, Fedida said it was not as if the network was asking the reporter to “pick cotton.” Fedida has reportedly been the subject of more than a dozen human resources complaints since 2016.
