Did CBS News Wage ‘War Against Older People’? : Television: Correspondent John Sheahan claims ageism was responsible for his dismissal. Federal trial begins today.

In 23 years with CBS News, John Sheahan says proudly, “I was the kind of guy you could drop into a war zone, and I’d come back with a story.” He covered wars in Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Bangladesh and many other countries for CBS and, as Beijing correspondent, helped the network win several major awards for coverage of the massacre in Tian An Men Square.

In 1991, however, Sheahan got a phone call in Beijing from a CBS News executive, telling him that he was being laid off. He was told the job was being eliminated to cut costs.

Sheahan was 53, 17 months shy of qualifying for lifetime health care and other benefits.

He contends that he was the victim of age discrimination and filed suit against his former employer, seeking an estimated $1 million in damages and back pay. In the layoffs in recent years at CBS News, Sheahan maintains, “CBS is engaged in a war against older people.”

Today, barring a last-minute settlement, Sheahan and CBS News will meet in federal court here. Portions of the proceedings--one of the first of its kind to come to trial against a network news organization--will be covered live on Court TV.

CBS denied the discrimination charge but declined to specify its witnesses or to comment on the case before the trial begins. “We are not going to litigate this case in the press,” CBS News spokeswoman Sandra Genelius said.

But along with CBS News President Eric Ober and other executives, the network is expected to call several current, older correspondents who will say that age is not a factor in their jobs.

Several former CBS News correspondents have agreed to testify for Sheahan, including Richard Wagner and Bert Quint, who also were laid off in recent years and believe that age was a factor.

Wagner, a 29-year veteran of CBS News, lost his job at age 56 last year after CBS closed its bureau in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“CBS certainly has some correspondents in their 50s,” Wagner said, “but I believe that there has been a changed climate at CBS News in recent years, a move to get rid of older people to save on benefits and salary--and, coincidentally, to replace them with fresh, young faces that presumably conform to what audience surveys say viewers want to look at.”

Quint, now 63, lost his job last year after 28 years with CBS News when the network closed its Rome bureau.

As part of his suit, Sheahan alleges that he was treated differently from younger employees. Despite praise from CBS management over the years, Sheahan said, he was not offered alternate employment within the network when his job in Beijing was eliminated, while younger correspondents whose positions were dropped were given such opportunities.

CBS also is being sued for age discrimination by a former employee who was off-camera. Monica Newton, 50, spent 27 years at the network until she was fired as a production manager in 1991. She said she was told that her position was being eliminated, but she maintains that her functions subsequently have been taken over by younger employees.