An Emmy-winning investigative reporter claims she was abruptly fired from News12 Long Island after calling out her bosses for shortchanging her on resources and air time — even sidelining her from coverage of the Gilgo Beach killings — while male colleagues had plenty of support, according to a lawsuit.
Rachel Yonkunas, who worked for the local news network since 2022, was stunned in September after her superiors demanded she take a $10,000 pay cut to join the station’s morning broadcast.
“I was shocked, devastated and confused,” Yonkunas, 35, exclusively told The Post. “I couldn’t understand why they were putting me, a successful investigative reporter, in this position. I think they thought I would just accept it.”
The ultimatum came after Yonkunas pointed out how male peers were getting more from the station, including regularly getting additional help on assignments, she said.
One male investigative reporter who worked for News12 in New Jersey “got the support of producers and photographers” and the stories worked on by male peers “were given priority,” Yonkunas said in a gender discrimination lawsuit filed Altice USA, which owns News12 in the tri-state area.
Meanwhile, Yonkunas had her stories pulled from broadcasts an hour before they were to air, in favor of male coworkers, she alleged.
For months, she had no photographer to help her while a male sports anchor was “regularly prioritized” for such support, she said in court papers which did not identify the colleagues by name.
“High profile assignments were consistently given to male reporters. For instance, despite Ms. Yonkunas’ significant contributions to the Gilgo Beach investigation, [the story was] assigned … to a male reporter, disregarding both her and her female colleague’s input,” she said in court papers.
Yonkunas said her work had been consistently praised before she spoke out — and that after she raised the issue of the disparities, she was put on a 30-day performance improvement plan and asked to do more.
“It came out of left field,” said Yonkunas, who was nominated for four Emmys this year and won the prestigious award in 2016 while working for a network in Albany.
The University of Tampa-educated journalist said she met the goals laid out for her in the performance improvement plan and was blindsided by the demand she step into the lower-paying gig.
Her bosses claimed they didn’t want Yonkunas to leave but “made me feel like I was not good enough to be there,” she recalled.
