This reporting is featured in this week’s edition of Confider, the newsletter pulling back the curtain on the media. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
A fiery lawsuit has rocked New York’s Room 9, the cramped and storied space housing reporters covering City Hall, where star scribes like The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey, and Semafor’s always thankful Ben Smith cut their teeth.
Former New York Daily News City Hall reporter Anna Sanders says she was paid less than her male counterpart on the beat, and now she’s suing the paper, its parent company Tribune Publishing, and former EIC Robert York for employment discrimination and retaliation.
ADVERTISEMENT
According to court documents obtained and reviewed by Confider, Sanders claims she was paid $2,000 less than fellow former City Hall reporter Shant Shahrigian, now a night editor at the Daily News, and is seeking almost a million dollars in damages for “her adverse treatment and termination from employment.”
But what has attracted the most chatter in this case is an affidavit provided by New York Times editorial board member and MSNBC political analyst Mara Gay—a close friend of Sanders who also used to work at the Daily News—in which she takes a number of pot shots at Shahrigian to question why he was paid more than his female colleague.
Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to the Confider newsletter here and have The Daily Beast media team’s stellar reporting sent straight to your inbox every Monday night.
Gay burnishes her Times and MSNBC credentials in the affidavit and writes that “the work of Shahrigian, Ms. Sanders’ future colleague, was not widely known among the city’s top reporters, or the powerful people we wrote about.” She adds that Shahrigian was not employed full time “as a reporter at all.” Furthermore, she writes, “His previous experiences at Riverdale Press, while assuredly important to that community, did not put him anywhere near the center of the most competitive, impactful or prominent journalism.”
In another zinger, Gay writes that “Ms. Sanders’ work was known to be buzzier, punchier, and more impactful than Mr. Shahrigian” and that “Mr. Shahrigian’s degree in journalism is commendable. However, many prominent journalists, including myself, have never sought such a degree, or found it necessary.” It is not clear whether Gay personally knows Shahrigian.
Gay referred Confider to the Times’ comms shop when reached for comment. “Ms. Gay submitted the affidavit in a personal capacity, and not on behalf of The New York Times Company nor The Times’s Editorial Board,” a spokesperson emailed Confider.
The lawsuit also reveals that in a meeting with then-City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Sanders complained about the pay issue. “We are fairly confident that if this comes before a New York jury we will get the result we are seeking,” Sanders’ attorney, Colleen M. Meenan, told Confider.
A rep for the Daily News did not respond to a request for comment while York and Shahrigian declined to comment.
Subscribe to the Confider newsletter here and have The Daily Beast media team’s stellar reporting sent straight to your inbox every Monday night.
