Indeed, message to the country!
TMZ’s Harvey Levin & Warner Bros Hit With Discrimination & Retaliation Action Over Outlet’s Alleged “Sexist & Misogynistic” Culture
A former TMZ production assistant and on-air contributor filed a federal discrimination and retaliation complaint Tuesday against Harvey Levin and Warner Bros Entertainment that could lead to a lawsuit down the line. “Ms. Zilio, along with her female colleagues, was belittled and abused, held to different and more stringent standards, excluded from business and social interactions in which only male employees participated, denied advancement opportunities, and retaliated against when she resisted the sexist and misogynistic ways,” claims the action from the former employee, Bernadette Zilio, with the the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Zilio was an employee of Levin’s EHM Productions from 2015 to February 28 of this year. In the complaint, Zilio and her Wigdor LLP and Girard Bengali Apc attorneys detail the culture at the celebrity gossip outlet and sister site TooFab, where Zilio served as an associate producer, as a “boys’ club,” “100% a bro fest” and a “[f]reaking frat house.” And, they say when Zilio tried to go through corporate channels to do something about how she and other women were being treated, she was punished, pink-slipped and threatened.
“In addition to the discriminatory work environment, Ms. Zilio’s complaints on behalf of herself and her female colleagues about the unlawful treatment were met with retaliatory discipline and abuse,” the 27-page filing states. “Incredibly, Ms. Zilio was terminated within a few days of Warner Bros. and EHM’s Human Resources telling Ms. Zilio that it rejected her complaints about the sexist and misogynist treatment, and instead accepted the excuses her male supervisors gave for the differential treatment.” Seen on TMZ up until her last days, Zilio was walked out the door at the end of February after refusing to sign a separation agreement. The perp walk of sorts came just a few days after the supposed probe by WB Employee Relations Experts into her claims was suddenly wrapped up. The conclusion of Zilio’s second discussion in as many years with WB HR reps over conditions at EHM was also the day she had a run-in with TooFab’s managing editor Shayam Dodge, who accused Zilio of “plagiarism and misquoting” in an article of hers – the official catalyst for her termination later that day.
Along with the AT&T-owned WB, which owns and distributes EHM’s shows and content, Levin, EHM itself, Dodge and TooFab senior producer Ross McDonagh are named as respondents in the action, which took on a new hue once Zilio was fired. “Following her termination, Ms. Zilio retained counsel to assert her claims of discrimination and retaliation,” the complaint notes. “Her counsel informed Respondents that she intended to pursue such claims in litigation.” “In response, on July 29, 2020, Respondents, through their counsel, threatened to sue Ms. Zilio for ‘substantial liability’ if she were to share the details of her claims publicly. Respondents’ threat constitutes further retaliation since such threat was clearly intended to intimidate Ms. Zilio and dissuade her from engaging in protected activity.”
In response, EHM says Zilio is trying to rewrite history. “As Ms. Zilio and her attorney are well aware, TooFab.com parted ways with Ms. Zilio because of multiple and documented incidents of plagiarism and inaccurate reporting,” a spokesperson for the TMZ and TooFab production company told Deadline on Tuesday. “These incidents were addressed at the time and Ms. Zilio acknowledged her errors. This is a blatant attempt to use negative publicity and inaccurate claims to force TooFab and TMZ to pay a monetary settlement. We will vigorously defend against any attempt to mischaracterize what is a legal and justified employment decision.” Whether this all ends up going before a judge will be up to the EEOC and DFEH. The latter, at least, is usually inclined to grant complainant’s wishes, it should be noted.
https://deadline.com/2020/08/tmz-discrimination-action-sexism-harvey-levin-warner-bros-california-lawsuit-1203022777/
https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/tmz-wb-supplement-to-charge-of-discrimination-against-ehm-productions-and-warner-bros.-wm.pdf
Paul Sperry
@paulsperry_
BREAKING: After discovering the Comey FBI used a "defensive briefing" to spy on Trump in the 2016 campaign, Senate investigators are taking a second look at a "defensive briefing" on Russia that Andrew McCabe personally helped give inside VP Mike Pence's office on Feb. 10, 2017
https://twitter.com/paulsperry_/status/1298815594180096001
Minnesota v. Derek Chauvin et al: The Prosecution’s Dirty Little Secret
Medical examiner’s memorandum on Floyd’s toxicology report proves cause of death to be drug overdose, not murder.
On May 29, 2020, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin with third-degree murder (later raised to second-degree by Minnesota’s attorney general) in the death of George Floyd. Former Officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao were also charged with aiding and abetting the murder of Floyd. These charges were based on the autopsy performed by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office and a private “re-autopsy” performed at the request of the Floyd family’s attorney. Based on those procedures, the medical examiner issued a revised autopsy report stating that Floyd had died of “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression.” In short, Floyd’s death was allegedly caused by the manner in which the police had restrained him. But the police defendants were charged before the medical examiner had received the report of Floyd’s toxicology screen by NMS Labs of Horsham, Pennsylvania. Then, on May 31, 2020, NMS Labs forwarded Floyd’s toxicology report to the Hennepin County Medical Examiners’ Office. And that’s when the proverbial fecal matter hit the fan.
At 7:30 p.m. on May 31, 2020, prosecutors “met” online with Dr. Andrew Baker, Chief Medical Examiner of Hennepin County, to discuss Floyd’s toxicology report. Take a look at this recently released June 1, 2020, memorandum by Assistant County Attorney Amy Sweasy of that discussion. So there they were, staring at the just-received and damning toxicology report that blew to smithereens the whole prosecution theory that the police had killed Floyd. To their undoubted dismay, Dr. Baker, the chief medical examiner, had to concede that at 11 ng/mL, Floyd had “a fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances.” He also conceded that the fentanyl overdose “can cause pulmonary edema,” a frothy fluid build-up in the lungs that was evidenced by the finding at autopsy that Floyd’s lungs weighed two to three times normal weight. This is consistent with Officer Kueng’s observation at the scene that Floyd was foaming at the mouth and, as found at autopsy, that his lungs were “diffusely congested and edematous.” In other words, like a drowned man, Floyd’s lungs were filled with fluid. And that was the obvious and inescapable reason why Floyd kept shouting over and over again that he couldn’t breathe even when he was upright and mobile. The memorandum ends with Dr. Baker’s devastating conclusion that “if Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors he [Dr. Baker] would conclude that it was an overdose death.”
Translation: this toxicology report drives a stake through the heart of our murder case. How do we justify criminally charging these police officers and explain away our colossal screw-up? It is quite telling that this explosively exculpatory June 1 memorandum was not released by the prosecution until August 25, 2020. All of which prompts these questions: First, why did the prosecution wait three months to release this memorandum? Second, if the prosecution had released this information in a timely fashion, would that have helped to quell the anti-police outrage that has fueled the nationwide orgy of rioting and looting? Third, in light of Floyd’s toxicology results and the medical examiner’s assessment that Floyd’s fentanyl overdose caused him to essentially drown in his own bodily fluid, why haven’t the charges against all of the police defendants been dropped?
The handwriting is on the wall. Through all of the rioting, looting, and burning, the prosecution has kept secret its knowledge that George Floyd died as the result of a self-administered overdose of fentanyl. The Chief Medical Examiner of Hennepin County said as much way back on May 31, 2020. But, now that the truth has finally emerged, it’s well past time to call a halt to this illegal and unfounded “murder” case and to let these wrongfully accused men go free.
https://spectator.org/minnesota-v-derek-chauvin-et-al-the-prosecutions-dirty-little-secret/
George Floyd Autopsy
https://www.hennepin.us/-/media/hennepinus/residents/public-safety/documents/floyd-autopsy-6-3-20.pdf
Anon's Please look at this post
Paul Sperry Reporting: Senate investigators are taking a second look at a defensive briefing that McCabe personally helped give inside VP Pence's office 2/10/17
This would be around the time frame POTUS fired Flynn, was that the purpose of McCabe's visit?
Exactly!