WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Fox News Channel retaliated against Catherine Herridge, its homeland security correspondent, after she complained of age discrimination, a U.S. agency says.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced it has filed a complaint against Fox, Politico reported Thursday. A lawyer for the agency, Lynette Barnes, said it first tried to reach an "informal resolution" before filing suit, seeking punitive damages and compensation for stress Herridge said she suffered.
The EEOC says Herridge, 46, complained to Fox management in 2007 that she was being discriminated against because she was over 40 and a woman. In 2008, Fox asked her to sign a contract in which she would promise to refrain from making complaints of discrimination.
Herridge refused to sign and became an at-will employee, the EEOC said.
"We're not going to respond to a suspiciously timed press release from the EEOC," Fox said in a statement.
Herridge, a graduate of Harvard and Columbia Journalism School, was London correspondent for ABC News when she joined Fox in the same position in 1996.
