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iHeartMedia Atlanta president out of company for racist tirade [1]
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Date: 2022-10-16
A video of iHeartMedia Atlanta president Drew Lauter spouting racial slurs has been leaked very recently.
x The Atlanta market president of iHeartMedia was just fired after an employee shared a vid of him in a car with co-workers, smiling + telling the driver to "'run over' black people and 'fat' women, using offensive terms, and groping the driver of the car."
https://t.co/avjyNGgGKy — Lorie Liebig (@lorieliebig) October 14, 2022
In the video, which was recorded during August 2021 after a charity event in Atlanta, Lauter has joked about running over black people and fat women, and he also was gleefully groping the driver from the backseat. The video was recorded by a black iHeartMedia executive, who is considering taking litigation against the company due to the toxic, racist workplace environment under the hands of Lauter. The executive is represented by Jason Castle and Roosevelt Jean.
"To our knowledge, that incident as captured by our client on video was representative of other instances that gave rise to a hostile work environment, a discriminatory environment, a sexually harassing work environment," Castle said. He told ABC News that for his client, this matter is not just about him personally, but about shedding light on the environment at his workplace. "Our client doesn't have to comment on, or interpret, or characterize because the comments themselves are clear. The person who said them is clear. The question is, when is it ever appropriate for statements, comments, and those actions in the workplace? When is it ever appropriate?"
Amid the video being made public, Lauter is no longer with iHeartMedia.
Meg Stevens, the senior vice president of programming at iHeart Atlanta, issued a statement to ABC News on Friday confirming that Lauter is no longer employed by iHeartMedia. "Allegations of this nature go against both our company values and our policies and we take them very seriously," the statement read. "As soon as they were brought to our attention we acted quickly, retaining an outside investigator to conduct a thorough review, and when we received the outside investigator's findings we immediately took decisive action. The employee is no longer with the company."
iHeartMedia, formerly known as Clear Channel Communications, is the largest owner of commercial radio stations in the United States. In Atlanta, the radio stations they own include country 94.9 the Bull, top 40 Power 96.1, regional Mexican El Patrón 96.7, hip-hop/R&B 105.3 The Beat, Spanish pop Z105.7, and all-news BIN 640, the latter being part of the Black Information Network.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/16/2129272/-iHeartMedia-Atlanta-president-fired-for-racist-tirade
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