Case of TV anchor dismissed for using epithet heads to court

A discrimination lawsuit filed by a former TV anchor whose career ended after he used a racial epithet has made its way to a Philadelphia courtroom.

Fifty-three-year-old Tom Burlington says he lost his job over a news meeting discussion of the N-word because he said the full word.

Burlington is white. He was a weekend anchor at the city’s Fox station until the June 2007 meeting.

Former WTXF-TV General Manager Paul Renda says Burlington continued to use the word even after black colleagues became upset.

Renda told the all-white jury Tuesday that bad press followed and Burlington couldn’t stay on air. He says the station offered to buy out his contract but never fired him.

Burlington told jurors when the trial opened Monday that he didn’t use the word maliciously.