Christine Craft, born in San Marino, California, in 1944]], is an attorney, radio talk show host and former television news anchor. After graduating from college in 1966, with a degree in English, she spent time as a classroom teacher and competitive surfer in the Santa Barbara area. She became known in the broadcast industry for her age and sexual discrimination lawsuit in the 1980s, against a television station that had demoted her from news anchor to reporter.[1]
In 1974, Craft took a position as a weather reporter at KSBW-TV in Salinas, California. [2] While working for KSBW, she served in a variety of reporting roles, including news reporting and sports. She then moved from KSBW to the CBS affiliate, KPIX-TV, in San Francisco where she continued working as a reporter.
In 1977, CBS hired Craft to do a weekly segment titled "Women in Sports" for the CBS Sports Spectacular. As part of her on-air reporting, she was required to undergo a make-over, which included having her hair bleached platinum blonde; Craft later stated that she hated the experience. After a year at CBS, Craft returned to California where she again worked in several news positions which included being co-anchor for Santa Barbara's ABC affiliate, KEYT-TV
Craft continued with KEYT for several years before moving to Kansas City to work for the Metromedia, Inc. ABC affiliate, KMBC-TV. Craft claims that unbeknownst to her, a media consulting company had made a tape of her and had it shopped around to several stations throughout the country, including KMBC. As a result of this, executives at KMBC requested she come to Kansas City for an interview; following the interview, she was hired. Craft states that at the time of her hiring she told the station management she "showed signs of her age and experience", and after the experience with CBS was not willing to once again be "made over".
In January 1981 Craft became co-anchor of KMBC-TV in Kansas City, with Scott Feldman on the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts. After Craft became co-anchor, the newscasts jumped from third to first in the ratings. [3] In August (eight months into her two-year contract) she was removed from the anchor position after a focus group had determined she was "too old, too unattractive and wouldn't defer to men." At that time there was only one woman over the age of forty anchoring a newscast at a network affiliate in the United States. Craft refused to accept the demotion, and went public with her disagreement with the station with an interview in a local newspaper. She left the station and returned to television in Santa Barbara.
While working in Santa Barbara, Craft filed a TITLE VII lawsuit against Metromedia. In 1983, a federal jury in Kansas City awarded her $500,000 in damages. The federal judge overturned the award and ordered a second trial, this time in Joplin, Missouri. The second jury also awarded her the same $500,000. Metromedia appealed and the 8th Circuit Court subsequently overturned the decision. Craft's appeal to the United States Supreme Court's decision was denied, although Judge Sandra Day O'Conner did write in favor to hear the case. [2] However, numerous employment law books in worldwide use today, [2] include her case as an example of Title VII discrimination lawsuits.[4]
Craft was named one of the top five collegiate speakers in the United States in 1984, and her story was featured in an exhibit at the Newseum Museum of Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. In 1986, she published her semi-autobiographical book, "Too Old, Too Ugly, Not Deferential to Men" Craft continued doing television, anchoring the news at KRBK in Sacramento where she was also managing editor. She went on to do television programs for San Francisco's KQED. She then went to law school, graduating in 1995 from the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law, passing the California Bar exam that same year. It was during her studies in law school, Craft first ventured into talk-radio, hosting at KFBK, in Sacramento.
In the Fall of 2007, Craft left her hosting duties at KSAC in Sacramento, after a failure to reach a new contract agreement with the station manager. Currently, Craft is a fill-in talk radio host at KGO in San Francisco [2]and practices law worker's compensation and employment law at the law offices of Farrell, Fraulob and Brown in Sacramento. She is also involved in doing pro-bono work in the area of animal abuse and arguing for stronger statutes against such crimes.