Via the New York Post
A former Air America talk-show host claims the lefty radio network isn’t very liberal with money.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Lizz Winstead says she was fired, then stiffed out of nearly $300,000.
The suit says Winstead, best known as co-creator of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” started at AAR on Aug. 1, 2003, as “the first creative and third employee overall hired” and became its “principal developer” of programming and co-host of the show “Unfiltered.”
The suit puts her salary at $250,000 a year but says AAR owner Piquant LLC owes her about $200,000 for on-air work from May 2004 to March 4, when she was fired.
She’s suing for that $200,000 plus $83,333 in severance pay, $14,423.08 in unused vacation time and $5,960.55 that she says the network pocketed from her on-air ads for the Vermont Teddy Bear Company.
Winstead left without fanfare. Days later, AAR issued a statement saying it was taking the show in “a different direction.”
Her departure from “The Daily Show” was louder, following crude remarks made about her by then-host Craig Kilborn in a magazine interview.
A spokesman said Air America “does not comment on litigation.”
Sweet schadenfreude. Gotta love it when they eat their own.