Last Updated on
Kristen Shaughnessy Biography
Kristen Shaughnessy is an American news anchor. Since 1995, she has been the weekend anchor and breaking-news reporter for NY1 where she delivers news to New Yorkers.
Kristen Shaughnessy
Kristen Shaughnessy Age
Kristen has not yet disclosed her year, month and date of birth. However a tweet from Unseen on TV in 2019 described her as: “50 years old. Mother of 2. Anchor at NY1 since 1995 and winner of numerous awards.
Kristen Shaughnessy Husband
Kristen is, the daughter of John and Alice Shaughnessy of Pine Bush. She graduated from Hofstra University with a B.A. in Communications in 1990. She is married to professional golfer Joe Bush. She traces her roots back to the mid19th century, from the southwest of Ireland. The couple has two daughters Jamie and Kara. Her husband is a golf pro so they stagger our schedules so that one of them is usually home with their two girls. They have sitters who also help on days when their schedules conflict. Kristen works the early morning shift, which means getting up at either 2:30 a.m. when she anchor, 3:30 a.m. when she report.
Kristen Shaughnessy NY1
Kristen is there to deliver news to New Yorkers. She has been the weekend anchor and breaking-news reporter for NY1since 1995.
She started out in radio and then went on to an upstate NY television station before working for NY1. Ironically, she grew up in a house without a TV. After her family’s television broke, they decided reading was a better option.
During the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Shaughnessy was one of the first reporters on scene. She arrived before the first tower fell. Due to the loss of cell phone service, she found the nearest pay phone to report back to the studio. Mid-way through the conversation, she had to drop the phone and run as the tower came down.
Kristen Shaughnessy Photo
Kristen Shaughnessy Gender discrimination
Kristen is among a group of five women who filed an age and gender discrimination lawsuit against their employer NY1 and Charter Communications in New York City in June 2019.
Kristen and fellow NY1 reporters Roma Torre, Vivian Lee, Amanda Farinacci, and Janine Ramirez filed their lawsuit in the Southern District of New York court on June 19 2019. That same day, they published a joint open letter detailing their grievances.
Together, the five women form what they call ‘Unseen Women on TV,’ a group of female anchors fighting age discrimination in the newsroom.
NY1, a local news source for New York City, came under the ownership of Charter Communications in 2016 when it merged with Time Warner Cable. The lawsuit alleges that with the merger came a slew of layoffs: “approximately 40 long-time, older NY1 employees over the age of 40 were forced out, 7 while the layoffs barely impacted younger employees. While Plaintiffs were spared from this layoff, they have since been forced to work in an environment that has become exceedingly hostile.”
The plaintiffs go on to assert that executives are “grooming literal “replacements” that track each of Plaintiffs’ respective appearances and ethnic backgrounds.”
“By way of example, while Ms. Shaughnessy is being marginalized, Ms. Driscoll (36 years old, and also Caucasian and blonde) has ascended, including being given a daytime daily anchor position.”
Kristen presents evidence of decreased airtime despite her lengthy tenure with NY1 and numerous awards. The lawsuit claims also that she was recently “demoted” to the most junior reporting position.
Kristen Shaughnessy Awards
Kristen is a winner of numerous awards. Among her numerous awards, she was named one of Irish America’s First Class of Top 50 Power Women in America in 2016. She has also been named as one of the Top 30 Media by the Irish Voice and has twice been named to Irish America’s Top 100 in America. (Irish America and the Irish Voice are sister publications of IrishCentral.com.)