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A Verizon executive claimed the company has been getting threats over alleged race discrimination from Byron Allen — the litigious media mogul who owns the Weather Channel, The Post has learned.
Allen — who just last month won a settlement in his $10 billion racial discrimination lawsuit against McDonald’s — has threatened a similar suit against the telecom giant after it backed away from a $15 million yearly advertising pact with his TV networks, sources said.
The 64-year-old comedian-turned-media executive has likewise pledged to take out ads claiming Verizon, its CEO Hans Vestberg and Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Barland are all “racist,” according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation, who said the threats were verbal.
But sources close to Verizon say the company believes the claims are without merit — and that Allen’s threats amount to an attempted shakedown by his company Allen Media Group, also known as AMG.
In an exclusive interview with The Post, Verizon’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Joseph Ruggiero confirmed threats of a smear campaign — and signaled that the company wasn’t backing down.
“AMG has made baseless threats to publicly smear Verizon and its executives unless we meet their demands,” Ruggiero said. “We will not tolerate these cynical pressure tactics.”
Allen and AMG declined to comment.
Verizon execs learned of the recent threats through an industry exec with direct knowledge, who also spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity.
Multiple sources close to the situation said the previously unreported dispute began in 2022 when Verizon had attempted to negotiate a long-term advertising contract with AMG, which in addition to the Weather Channel owns a number of local TV stations and digital platform the Grio.
The new deal was to include $15 million in annual ad spending.
Neither AMG nor Verizon signed the deal but Verizon continued to spend $15 million on ads, sources said.
Verizon claims it reviewed its budget and told AMG it had to drastically reduce its spending by 30% and again next year, bringing its yearly spending down to $5 million from $15 million.
The slashed ad budget was sparked by economic volatility and fluctuations in ad spending, said sources, who denied any kind of racial discrimination at Verizon.
That is “notwithstanding the fact that we have spent tens of millions of dollars with AMG over the years and have been supporting small businesses and driving economic development in the communities we serve for decades,” Ruggiero added.
Indeed, just years earlier, in 2021, Verizon and AMG put out a splashy press release announcing their partnership in a new diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI initiative, which took the form of a Black-owned media summit. The goal was to increase media spending in US Black-owned media companies.
“I’m very proud of Verizon, one of the largest advertisers in the world, coming to the table to make sure we have real economic inclusion for Black-owned media,” said Allen said at the time. “The biggest trade deficit in our nation is the trade deficit between corporate America and Black America, and we must close that gap immediately.”
Verizon’s then- Chief Media Officer John Nitti said his company has been “working to address diversity, equity and inclusion issues for years and we are proud of the actions we continue to take to move the industry forward.”
Nitti is no longer with the company, and the political climate has changed under President Trump who issued an executive order eliminating DEI programs for federal agencies earlier this year. The Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr said he would make eliminating DEI programs part of the approval process for mergers.
In May, the FCC greenlit Verizon’s $20 billion merger with Frontier Communications, days after Verizon agreed to end its DEI programs. Carr posted the letter on X at the time.
For his part, Allen settled a discrimination lawsuit in June against McDonald’s for an undisclosed amount, The Post reported. Allen had sued the fast-food giant for $10 billion dollars in 2021, accusing it of “racially stereotyping” by excluding Black-owned media from much of its advertising budget.
Allen has largely prevailed in a slew of racial discrimination lawsuits filed against major players in media and advertising over distribution deals for his channels and ad sales.
In 2020, he reached a settlement with NBC parent Comcast after a long legal battle that went to the US Supreme Court to rule on one aspect of the case. Allen also reached settlements with DirecTV in 2015 and Charter Communications in 2021.
