An arbitration panel has determined that CBS must pay a former executive almost $10 million in back pay and interest following his 2021 firing, his lawyer told the Daily Beast.
Peter Dunn was ousted as president of CBS Television Stations after a Los Angeles Times report accused him of making “racist, sexist, homophobic, and discriminatory comments,” which included him allegedly referring to a news anchor as “too gay.”
Dunn was fired without cause and initially continued to be paid. However, months later, CBS completed an internal probe into his conduct and determined he should be fired with cause, which they claimed nullified his salary and stock options, his lawyer, Larry Hutcher, confirmed to the Beast.
Dunn’s contract did not permit CBS to change the designation of his firing from “without cause” to “with cause,” Hutcher told the New York Post, which first reported on the arbitration panel’s decision.
Instead, he said CBS should have kept Dunn as an employee until its internal investigation was completed, but, since it did not, Dunn was entitled to be paid until his contract expired.
An arbitration panel agreed with Dunn earlier this month, Hutcher said. The panel ordered CBS to pay $7 million in salary plus interest, for a total of $9.78 million.
Hutcher told the Beast he is “very pleased” with the decision, which will now move on to the Supreme Court for confirmation. He said CBS told him it does not intend to contest the panel’s decision in front of the high court, meaning Dunn may receive his back pay in a matter of weeks.
“This was never about just money,” Hutcher said. “His reputation was destroyed, and this was about restoring that.”
A CBS spokesperson told the Post that the network “strongly” disagrees with the panel’s decision. CBS did not respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
“Four years ago, we removed Peter Dunn as head of the CBS Television Stations for reasons that have been well documented and reported publicly,” the spokesperson told the Post. “This decision was not based on the substance of the allegations against Mr. Dunn.”
Hutcher claimed to the Post that his client’s firing was to appease a “woke mob.”
“This was never about Peter’s conduct—it was to appease the woke mob,” he told the paper. “It was like the Red Scare, and it was very shortsighted and unfair.”
CBS has been rocked with leadership shakeups and high-profile departures as the network tries to broker a truce with President Donald Trump, who remains peeved by a 60 Minutes report that he alleges was deceptively edited to help his Democratic challenger Kamala Harris last year. CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, is still in negotiations with Trump to settle a $20 billion lawsuit regarding the interview.
CBS News and Stations CEO Wendy McMahon left the network earlier this week and alluded to the network’s wrangling with the Trump administration as the reason.
“It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” she wrote to staff in a memo obtained by the Daily Beast. “It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.”
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