Latest news with #BrianBeneker
Daily Mail
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE White SEAL Team writer who says he was denied CBS job because of DEI suggests Trump spurred settlement
A former writer for the SEAL Team TV show said growing sentiment against DEI policies might have played a role in his recent settlement with CBS and Paramount. Brian Beneker, who worked as a freelance writer on the CBS show, confirmed he reached a settlement more than a year after he filed a claim alleging he wasn't given a permanent position because of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policies. 'I'm happy with the way it turned out,' Beneker told exclusively on Tuesday. 'Ultimately, I wanted to work, and clearly hiring writers based on their work was no longer the way to go after these policies were implemented. 'I was up against writers with zero experience who were promoted ahead of me based on their gender or their sexuality. Ultimately, the goal of the suit was to bring attention to that.' In the lawsuit filed February 2024 in California federal court, Beneker claimed he was repeatedly passed over for staff writing jobs after the studio implemented an 'illegal policy of race and sex balancing' that promoted the hiring of less qualified staffers from certain groups who identify as minorities, LGBTQ or women. Beneker claimed a black LGBTQ woman ended up with the staff position. The writer, who is white, said the growing sentiment against DEI policies could've factored into the decision to settle his case. 'I filed this a more than a year ago before Trump came into office, but did that influence the outcome,' he told 'I think it [the DEI policies] were political to begin with, which has obviously changed since President Trump took office. 'There have been plenty of lawsuits filed after mine, so did the pressure cause it? I think it's the combination of both.' According to court documents obtained by both sides asked to dismiss the case with prejudice, which means neither side can refile the claim. U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang granted the dismissal. 'On April 18, 2025, Plaintiff Brian Beneker ["Plaintiff'] and Defendants CBS Studios Inc. and Paramount Global ['Defendants' and together with Plaintiff, the 'Parties'] filed a Joint Stipulation For Dismissal with Prejudice,' the judge wrote. 'Having considered the Parties' Joint Stipulation for Dismissal with Prejudice, the files and records of this action, and all other matters properly submitted to the Court, and good cause appearing therefor, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Parties' Joint Stipulation for Dismissal with Prejudice is GRANTED. 'This entire action is dismissed with prejudice. Each party shall bear their own attorneys' fees and costs.' has reached out to CBS for comment. Beneker's case garnered national attention after American First Legal Foundation — a conservative group founded by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller — joined Beneker's legal team from JW Howard Attorneys. Beneker's case was among others represented by the Foundation, including lawsuits against other major companies like Starbucks, Target, Disney and Morgan Stanley that allegedly had discriminatory hiring practices and quotas. Although SEAL Team was canceled at the end of 2024, Beneker was still working on the show when he filed the suit earlier that year. Beneker, who is white, said CBS and parent company Paramount owed him $500,000 in lost wages. He co-wrote scripts for four episodes of the show, including its season three finale 'No Choice in Duty.' Despite receiving praise for the quality of his work, he was repeatedly told he would be 'next in line,' according to court documents. CBS instead hired others — black writers, women, including a lesbian, who often had no relevant experience or writing credits, according to the complaint. Showrunner Spencer Hudnut said those writers were hired because they 'checked diversity boxes that Beneker did not,' Beneker's attorneys claimed. The CBS settlement comes at a time when other major companies and corporations have scaled back their DEI programs amid pressure to comply with President Donald Trump's executive orders. Miller has slammed DEI policies and called them 'corporate bigotry'. He said Beneker's case would help 'excise the poison of race discrimination from American workplaces.' The former show writer said he worked as a freelancer since 2017 and waited for his turn to join the crew as a staff writer. The last straw, however, came after an assistant who allegedly had no writing credits or experience was promoted to a writing staff position over him. 'I had written them three scripts but then refused to still hire me and chose to promote staff who basically were assistants who hadn't written anything, and that became all women,' he said. 'There was obviously a pattern there. That was it for me.' Beneker said despite his frustration, SEAL Team had three 'great' show runners and doesn't blame anyone on the show. 'In the end, I don't blame or hold anything against anyone who worked on the show,' he said. 'They were all just following the network's policies.' While he is satisfied with the settlement, Beneker said he is unsure if he will receive any backlash. For now, he is a working on his own projects. 'We will see what the fallout will be,' he said. 'But what I would like networks to consider is the writers' experience and work. The writers should at least have to prove themselves on the page before you consider hiring them. He continued, 'Look, there are plenty of female writers who are better than me, and there are minority writers who are better. I'm not saying don't hire them. But when you hire someone, whose only experience is that one show over someone with more experience, that's just not right. It's all been based on the fact that they checked one of "the [DEI] boxes."'
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘SEAL Team' DEI Discrimination Suit Settled; Details Of Deal Between CBS & Trump Aide's America First Legal Foundation Kept Under Wraps
With the countdown on for David Ellison and Skydance's takeover of Paramount ticking, the behind-the-scenes battle over SEAL Team and the power of inclusion policies at CBS has come to an end. A federal judge has just approved a joint request from CBS Studios and former SEAL Team script coordinator Brian Beneker to dismiss the year-old case. White man Beneker sued in February 2024 claiming he wasn't given a permanent gig on the David Boreanaz-led series 'due to his race, sex, and heterosexuality' and the 'illegal policy' of diversity, equity and inclusion measures. Even though it had already been made public that SEAL Team was coming to an end late in 2024, Beneker was looking in his suit to score $500,000 in alleged lost wages, and 'an injunction requiring Defendants to offer Plaintiff a full-time job as a producer.' More from Deadline 'SEAL Team' Writer Discrimination Lawsuit Moves Forward After Judge Rejects CBS' Dismissal Attempt 'SEAL Team' Staffer Claims He Was Denied Scribe Gig Over Being White, Straight Male; Suit Backed By Trump Aide Stephen Miller's MAGA Legal Foundation Vince Vaughn Visits White House, POTUS Celebrates With Parody 'Wedding Crashers' Poster Now U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang has offered the last word on SEAL Team, which saw its last episode air on Paramount+ on October 6 last year. 'On April 18, 2025, Plaintiff Brian Beneker ('Plaintiff') and Defendants CBS Studios Inc. and Paramount Global ('Defendants' and together with Plaintiff, the 'Parties') filed a Joint Stipulation For Dismissal with Prejudice. Having considered the Parties' Joint Stipulation for Dismissal with Prejudice, the files and records of this action, and all other matters properly submitted to the Court, and good cause appearing therefor, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Parties' Joint Stipulation for Dismissal with Prejudice is GRANTED. This entire action is dismissed with prejudice. Each party shall bear their own attorneys' fees and costs,' according to a two-page order, posted Monday by Judge Hwang on the Central District of California court docket. First revealed late last week in court, the settlement ends the matter completely with both sides seemingly picking up their respective tabs. While details are confidential, it does seem that there was some payout to freelance writer Beneker in the deal. That payment was not particularly large, I hear. However, it also seems that there were no rollbacks in CBS' DEI policies as a part of the settlement. The latter being a distinct component of the thrust of the conservative activist America First Legal Foundation-backed Beneker's action, along with snagging a full time writing and producing slot on the now shuttered SEAL Team. To that, in a realpolitik Trump 2.0 environment where various media companies and platforms have quickly stripped away inclusion measures they once bragged about, or at least whitewashed said policies, CBS Studios had no comment on the settlement or the case today when contacted by Deadline. Beneker's main attorney John W. Howard of San Diego passed our request on to his co-counsel's at the AFLF. No one from the organization founded by Trump top aide Stephen Miller reached out to Deadline. In many ways, whatever the particulars of the settlement, it is no real surprise CBS made a deal and walked away. Certainly the fact that CBS lost its bid last August before Judge John F. Walter to have the case tossed out put strain on the company even before Trump won last November's election and returned to office. More recently, as Shari Redstone aims to unload the once mighty media giant to the scion of Oracle boss Larry Ellison, Trump FCC chair Brendan Carr has been repeatedly doing his master's bidding going after the one-time home of Walter Cronkite. Trump has sued CBS for $20 billion over an interview with his rival Kamala Harris that aired on 60 Minutes last fall. As rumors of a settlement in that case swirl, the MAGA administration last week went after the network and the newsmagazine for segments on reaction in Greenland to Trump utterances of taking over the North Atlantic island nation and the mild criticism Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had for the White House in its April 13 show. The Paramount and Skydance deal requires federal regulatory approval from the Carr-run FCC to go forward. While there is little doubt that deal will get the nod, the Trump team is making everyone jump through hoops in the meantime. Best of Deadline 'The Last Of Us': Differences Between HBO Series & Video Game Across Seasons 1 And 2 'Ransom Canyon' Book Vs. Show Differences: From Quinn & Staten's Love Story To Yancy Grey's Plot Everything We Know About Netflix's 'Ransom Canyon' So Far
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
CBS Settles Discrimination Lawsuit Over Alleged Racial Quotas for Hiring TV Writers
CBS Studios has settled a lawsuit from a script coordinator for SEAL Team, who accused parent company Paramount of carrying illegal diversity quotas that discriminate against straight white men. Lawyers for both sides on Friday informed the court of a deal to settle the case. They noted that the 'action and all claims and defenses asserted therein, be dismissed with prejudice,' meaning the lawsuit can't be refiled, according to the filing. Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed. More from The Hollywood Reporter "Who the Hell Are You?": 'Matlock' Creator Answers Key Questions From Finale, Teasing Season 2 Padma Lakshmi to Host Cooking Competition Series for CBS 'The Bold and the Beautiful' Scores Three-Season Renewal at CBS The settlement aligns with companies across Hollywood rethinking diversity, equity and inclusion policies amid a larger retreat from initiatives under that label in the private sector driven by the government. That includes Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount, which earlier this year eliminated staffing goals tied to race, ethnicity, sex and gender. The company also stopped collecting gender and diversity data for most U.S. job applicants and tying its employee incentive program to DEI goals, pointing to the U.S. Supreme Court striking down race-conscious admissions in universities and federal mandates that 'require changes in the way our company approaches inclusion moving forward.' Some of those policies came under the spotlight last year when SEAL Team script coordinator Brian Beneker alleged in a lawsuit filed in California federal court that he was repeatedly denied a staff writer job after the implementation of an 'illegal policy of race and sex balancing' that allegedly promoted the hiring of less qualified applicants from certain groups, namely those who identify as minorities, LGBTQ or women. He sought at least $500,000, as well as a court order making him a full-time producer on the series and barring the further use of discriminatory hiring practices. The court overseeing the case later rebuffed Paramount's bid to dismiss the case. The lawsuit was settled as Paramount Global continues to seek regulatory approval of its proposed merger with Skydance. FCC commissioner Brendan Carr, who sent a letter to Comcast in February saying that he was investigating DEI policies, has asserted his authority over the sale due to the transfer of broadcast licenses. The agency continues to investigate CBS News' handling of a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Beneker was represented by America First Legal Foundation, a conservative group founded by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. The firm, which was joined by JW Howard Attorneys, has brought federal complaints against major companies, including Starbucks, Morgan Stanley and BlackRock, arguing that corporate diversity and hiring practices run afoul of civil rights laws. It has targeted allegedly discriminatory hiring quotas at Disney, specifically a provision requiring that at least half of producer and writing staff come from underrepresented group that the company rolled back earlier this year. The settlement was reached as President Donald Trump's administration continues to campaign against DEI programs in the media and entertainment sector. Carr in March urged the agency's enforcement arm to open an investigation into Disney and ABC over whether the companies maintains discriminatory policies through racial quotas, among other things. Paramount and CBS declined to comment. Lawyers for Beneker didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
