Federal Jury Sides With ABC in Racial Bias Suit

A federal jury found Tuesday that ABC did not discriminate against three black cameramen who alleged that they were kept from working on the television network’s highest-paying shows because of their race.

Deliberating only two hours, jurors rejected claims that the Los Angeles-based cameramen earned as much as $16,649 a year less than some of their white counterparts because they were routinely assigned to low-prestige jobs, such as the evening news.

“I feel cheated. I don’t know whether I’ll ever trust the system,” said one of the cameramen, William McCloud, an Emmy Award-winner and a 21-year veteran of the network.

The National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People had supported the three men, the network’s only black cameramen on the West Coast, complaining in a letter to ABC last week that it was “clear to us that by its actions ABC has shown a flagrant disregard for . . . advancing and promoting its black cameramen.”

Network’s Position

ABC contended that the three men had been given opportunities for advancement but were either not qualified or had poor attitudes.

The network also provided evidence that, on average, black cameramen at ABC earn about the same as non-blacks. Non-blacks earned about $1,500 a year more than blacks in 1982 and 1983, but blacks earned more in 1984 and 1985, the network said.

The network’s attorney, Michael W. Monk, called the 57-year-old McCloud, “a nice man, an amiable gentleman who has very, very weak camera skills.” Another plaintiff, Robert Martin, 34, “has talent . . . but he has a terrible attitude . . . and astoundingly unrealistic expectations,” Monk said.

McCloud, Martin and Robert Scott, 45, alleged that they were assigned to utility positions, setting up camera cables, or assigned to shows such as the news and only occasionally offered higher-prestige jobs on soap operas such as “General Hospital,” network game shows and prime-time situation comedies. Cameramen can make more money on these assignments because they frequently involve overtime work.

Prestige Jobs

Monk argued that the three men had often declined to work overtime and that, in any case, prestige assignments go to the most qualified cameramen, regardless of race.

“This system is an open market system where you succeed or fail on your own merits, which, as far as I’m concerned, is what America is all about,” Monk told the jury in his closing arguments this week before U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer.

But Charles Theodore Mathews, representing the plaintiffs, said black cameramen at ABC face a “Catch-22” dilemma because they cannot win assignments on the higher-paying shows without experience and they cannot gain experience unless they work such shows.

“What you’re seeing here is a microcosm of a different kind of discrimination than the kind that’s played up in the media,” he told the jury. “The kind of thing these men faced on a daily basis is far more subtle and twice as dangerous.”

$3.5 Million Sought

The jury unanimously found that none of the three men, who had sought $3.5 million in damages, had suffered racial discrimination.

Pfaelzer still must rule on a discrimination claim lodged under another federal law, a finding that could award the three men back pay and other limited relief.

The judge will also rule on McCloud’s contention that ABC breached an agreement to give him regular performance evaluations.