Anchor alleges negative references and HR 'sham' probe in Nexstar newsroom
A veteran African American news anchor is accusing Nexstar of discriminatory references, blocked transfers and an HR investigation she calls a “sham” that damaged her career prospects.
Crystal Whitman, a 25-year broadcast news veteran, has sued Nexstar Media Group, Inc. and former WRBL-TV news director Connor Hackling in federal court in Georgia, alleging race and gender discrimination, defamation, retaliation and invasion of privacy. The case was filed on December 11, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, Columbus Division. The filing sets out her side of the story; a court has not ruled on the allegations.
Whitman, who is African American, says she worked as an on-air news anchor at WRBL-TV in Columbus from approximately May 2021 until June 2025. She describes a four-year run marked by consistently strong performance reviews, no discipline and a contract renewal in June 2024. According to the filing, Hackling’s evaluations praised her reliability, professionalism, teamwork and willingness to volunteer for weekend shifts.
The trouble, she says, began when she tried to move up.
Whitman contrasts her experience with that of former morning co-anchor Blake Eason, described in the filing as a white male who was the subject of a harassment complaint she filed, which led both of them to meet with HR. Despite that history, she says, management smoothed his path out of the station: favorable references from Hackling, an approved transfer to another Nexstar outlet, a farewell party and an on-air send-off with praise and well-wishes.
Her own exit, she alleges, could not have been more different.
From fall 2024 through spring 2025, Whitman says she submitted approximately twenty internal transfer requests for open anchor and reporter jobs at various Nexstar stations. Under Nexstar’s internal transfer policy, she notes, a news director’s approval is required before an employee can transfer. According to the lawsuit, Hackling denied every one of her requests, without written justification.
Externally, she says two Atlanta stations — Atlanta Alive and FOX 5 Atlanta — showed strong interest in early 2022, including discussions of a possible contract buyout. After those newsrooms checked her references with Hackling, communication “abruptly ceased,” the filing states. Later, working with a different agent, she alleges that hiring managers in South Carolina, Alabama and other markets withdrew interest after similar calls, and that her agent was told she was being described as “lazy” and “toxic.”
Whitman points to an audio recording as her key piece of evidence. On that recording, she says, Hackling states that she “does her own thing” and that he “would not recommend hiring her,” and acknowledges he had received calls from other news directors as well. The filing alleges those remarks were inconsistent with his written performance reviews and underpin her claims of defamation per se and tortious interference with business relations.
For HR professionals, some of the most striking claims involve how sensitive issues were handled internally.
Whitman says that in March or April 2024 she submitted a doctor’s note for a medical procedure of a “personal and intimate” nature. Rather than accept the note, she alleges, Hackling demanded her doctor’s name, contact information and specific details about the procedure. She says she sent the information via text under pressure. In May 2025, she says, she reported this to Nexstar’s HR team, providing the text messages, but was never informed of any follow-up investigation or acknowledgment that corrective action was taken.
She further alleges that after she sent a cease-and-desist letter and formally raised concerns with corporate HR and Nexstar’s legal department, the company conducted what she calls a “sham” investigation. According to the filing, an HR representative told her that news directors could have “internal commentary and opinions” about employees, and a company lawyer confirmed this. Whitman counters that the Employee Guidebook limits employment references and commentary to HR personnel and describes the cited policy as fabricated.
The lawsuit also describes a May 2025 clash over “overused vacation time.” Whitman says a local HR manager told her she owed Nexstar money, but when she pointed to handbook language that, in her view, limited such deductions to terminated employees, the company reversed course and issued her full final paycheck on the last possible day.
Whitman is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, interest, costs and a jury trial. The allegations remain unproven, and no court has made any findings on the merits of her claims.
