Tavis Smiley Sues PBS For Firing Him

Tavis Smiley Sues PBS For Firing Him

Tavis Smiley is swinging back at PBS after they canned him and cancelled his 14-year-run talk show over multiple instances of sexual misconduct.

The talk show host has filed a lawsuit against the network, claiming that the allegations against him were “trumped up” in an attempt to push him out for other reasons.

If you’ll recall, Smiley was suspended from the network back in December. He almost immediately admitted to having multiple sexual relationships with some of his female subordinates, sometimes even telling them in the interview process that he’d much rather date them than hire them…but still somehow defended his actions as not at all creepy or inappropriate. Either way, he was officially fired before the beginning of the new year.

However, in his lawsuit, he claims that all his in-office booty-chasing had nothing to do with the “real” reason he was canned by the network. According to TMZ, Smiley claims in a new lawsuit that there was always racial tension at PBS. He says network bigwigs routinely:

“…hassled Mr. Smiley when he had African American guests who espoused controversial positions and effectively tried to stop any such guests from appearing.”

Meanwhile, PBS says this whole thing is a pathetic attempt to distract the public from the revelation of Tavis’ nastiness, and it’s absolutely “ridiculous and false” to claim that their decision was based on anything else.

We’ll see how far this suit goes. Bottom line…you generally can’t smash half the office and think it will all be okay forever.

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