TV and newspapers: Detroit media history
The Detroit Free Press has been publishing since the mid-19th century.
- Taryn Asher has won 10 Emmys for her work and been a Fox 2 Detroit lead anchor since 2022.
- Asher grew up in Fenton and is an alum of Michigan State University.
- Her attorney says he is taking the necessary steps for a gender discrimination lawsuit.
Veteran TV news anchor Taryn Asher has been fired by Fox 2 Detroit (WJBK-TV) in what her lawyer describes as a case of gender discrimination.
Matthew Turner of the Southfield-based Sommers Schwartz litigation firm confirmed the news first reported by Deadline Detroit about Asher’s termination from the station.
Asher has been off the air since November 2025. Neither she nor Fox 2 Detroit management has commented publicly on the reason why.
On Tuesday, April 7, Turner told the Free Press that Asher was suspended in November for “a very short time period” and then, shortly afterward, was fired.
According to Turner, Asher had not been treated fairly in terms of “assignments, scheduling, guests” compared with her male anchor colleague and wanted the equal treatment she had received from the station’s prior management.
In 2022, Asher and Roop Raj took over as Fox 2 Detroit’s lead anchors from longtime anchors Huel Perkins and Monica Gayle, who both retired that year. In 2025, Paul McGonagle took over as senior vice president and general manager of Fox 2 Detroit.
Efforts by the Free Press to contact McGonagle, Fox 2 Detroit news director Brooks Blanton and a spokesperson for the station were not successful.
Turner said Asher raised the issues of unfairness to management before she was fired. “She was being treated differently because of her gender from her male counterpart, and they retaliated against her for raising those concerns.”
Turner said he is taking the necessary steps for pursuing a gender discrimination lawsuit. “We filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is the first step,” he said. “And then the next step is litigation.”
Turner said he and Asher are “very optimistic that the facts are going to come out in court and she is going to be vindicated, that this was clearly unwarranted. … She’s devoted a major portion of her professional life to her career at Fox 2. To have it all taken away from her has been devastating.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Asher was still listed as an anchor at 5, 6, 10 and 11 p.m. on the staff page of WJBK’s website. She describes herself on the site as having “a deep passion for truth, accountability, and connection.”
In February, Asher mentioned her months-long absence from the airwaves on social media without getting into specifics.
“Thank you to everyone who has reached out with love and kindness these past 3 months,” she posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Feb. 19. “I miss connecting with you each day. I’m thoughtfully working through an unexpected work-related matter. Grateful for time away with loved ones. I hope to see you soon.”
Asher grew up in Fenton and is an alum of Flint’s Powers Catholic High School and Michigan State University, where she majored in journalism. Prior to joining Fox 2 Detroit in 2007, she worked at WLNS, the CBS affiliate in Lansing and WJRT, Flint’s ABC station.
She has won 10 local Emmys for her work.
Along with doing numerous appearances for local charities, Asher had a cameo as a TV anchor on a newscast in 2023’s “Justified: City Primeval,” the FX limited series set in Detroit and starring Timothy Olyphant as lawman Raylan Givens.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.
