She raised the alarm about unequal treatment - then her station launched an investigation
A Detroit news anchor says her station played favorites - then pushed her out for saying so.
Taryn Asher, a longtime evening anchor at Fox 2 Detroit, has taken her employer to federal court. In a complaint filed June 3, 2026, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, she accuses Fox Television Stations and the station's operator, New World Communications of Detroit, of treating her worse than her male co-anchor because she is a woman, and then punishing her for complaining.
Asher anchored the station's evening news from 2007 and became lead evening anchor in 2022, the filing says. She alleges that, around the time a new general manager was hired in July 2025, she noticed a pattern of women in leadership positions being replaced by men, and that her co-anchor, Roop Raj, was landing more guest interviews than she was. She also says she was cut out of the conversations where those interviews were assigned.
The discrimination claim turns on a scheduling decision. According to the complaint, Fox approved a schedule change so Asher could host a relaunched show, "Let it Rip" - the same kind of change it had already given Raj for his show, "The Pulse." The filing says the news director indicated he wanted to treat his anchors "equally." Days later, Asher alleges, Fox pulled the change at the general manager's direction while leaving Raj's in place.
Asher says she complained again and again. In an October 31, 2025 email quoted in the filing, she wrote that she was "concerned about the lack of balance and equity, particularly compared to my co-anchor who holds the same responsibilities but has a more accommodating schedule."
Then, she says, the consequences arrived. The complaint states that on November 5, 2025, Fox put her on leave pending an investigation into alleged "egregious behavior," citing claims that she had appeared "upset" on-air after a production error during Election Day coverage. Asher alleges that her co-anchor contacted HR around then and labeled her "jealous," recasting her discrimination complaints as her "[having] an issue with men vs. women." On November 21, 2025, the filing says, the news director told her it "would be [her] last day at Fox 2." Fox later disputed that it had terminated her, according to the complaint, but declined to return her to work.
The complaint also points to male employees it says kept their jobs after far worse conduct - among them two male producers it alleges were "reported for egregious sexual harassment of a female morning news anchor" but offered transfers instead of termination.
For HR leaders, the value here is the pattern, not the celebrity. The discrimination theory rests on a comparator: same role, same workload, different treatment. When one employee gets an accommodation a similar colleague is denied, the gap becomes the argument. Asher's list of male comparators is built to make exactly that point.
The retaliation theory is the bigger flag. Protected complaint, then leave, then investigation, then termination - that sequence is the timeline plaintiffs use to argue cause and effect. A tight gap between a complaint and an adverse action is precisely what the EEOC and the courts examine. Asher filed her EEOC charge on March 16, 2026, and received a Notice of Right to Sue on May 11, 2026, before suing.
And there is a documentation lesson running through it. The complaint quotes internal emails, a text from a co-anchor, and the language of the investigation itself. That is the record HR built in the moment. Treating comparators consistently, writing notes that explain each decision on its own terms, and running investigations the same way no matter who complains - those are the habits that survive a federal filing.
The case is at the complaint stage as of writing. The allegations have not been tested in court, Fox has not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled.
