FOX News anchor Kelly Wright: 'Indefensible and inexcusable' institutional racism at network

Fox News anchor Kelly Wright has accused his employer of maintaining a culture where institutional racism blunts efforts to attract a more multicultural audience.

A day after Wright joined with others in filing a racial discrimination lawsuit against Fox News, Wright spoke at a news conference Wednesday at the offices of the Wigdor LLC law firm representing him and other plaintiffs.

Wright asserted that he is the only African-American anchor at Fox News and that the cabler only has a handful of black and Latino reporters. "In 2017, that should not be the case," Wright said, calling it "indefensible and inexcusable" given the talent pool available. "It speaks volumes (about) the disregard to equality at Fox News."

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Wright said his suggestions of doing specials and other programming to reach beyond Fox News' stronghold of white viewers has usually fallen on "deaf ears." He added: "Our leaders simply overlook the value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.... We can definitely do better."

In a statement issued Tuesday, a Fox News spokeswoman denied the allegations made in the latest lawsuit to hit the network that has been rocked by sexual harassment and racial discrimination claims in the past year.

"Fox News and (executive VP) Dianne Brandi vehemently deny the race discrimination claims in both lawsuits. They are copycat complaints of the original one filed last month. We will vigorously defend these cases," the spokeswoman said.

Wright, who has been with Fox News for more than a decade, at present is co-anchor of the Saturday edition of "America's News Headquarters" and he serves as an overnight breaking news anchor.

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