(from the The Cincinnati Post)
Veteran pop music critic Larry Nager is suing the Cincinnati Enquirer for firing him, claiming he lost his job because of his age, gender and in retaliation for protesting the reassignment of longtime TV/radio critic John Kiesewetter.
Nager, who is 50, said in a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati that Enquirer management told him he was “not aggressive” and “did not do his job” when they fired him Jan. 9. “Despite this claim, (Nager) had a cover story running in Weekend that same day, and the paper ran a ‘Winter Arts Guide’ the following Sunday, the centerpiece of which had been written by (Nager),” said his attorney, Sheila Smith.
The Enquirer management “has treated other older reporters and columnists in a similar fashion recently. Mr. Nager believes that the Enquirer is making a concerted effort to replace older reporters and columnists with younger, mostly female, writers, in order to accomplish its stated goal of capturing a younger, female audience,” Smith said. Tom Callinan, executive editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, did not return a phone call. Nager worked for The Cincinnati Post and the Commercial Appeal of Memphis before joining The Enquirer in November 1995.
In his lawsuit, Nager asks for his job back and for an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
