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TBS and CNN make their African-American employees work way harder to get a promotion ... according to an ex-employee who's now suing both networks, and their parent company.

Wanda Byrd, who is black, says she's worked for TBS for 13 years, and describes her job as a mid-level manager in quality assurance. She says she was passed over for a promotion to a senior level position, and claims a less-skilled and qualified white man got it.

In the suit, Byrd says that's par for the course.

According to docs, obtained by TMZ, black employees at TBS have a significantly lower promotion rate than Caucasians -- and zero people of color ever obtain the title of senior VP or higher. Byrd goes further, saying the company segregates ... keeping most black employees in certain divisions that she calls "less powerful and non-revenue generating."

Byrd says in her suit there is a dramatic difference in pay between blacks and whites -- and African-Americans have to work 3 times as long as Caucasians to receive any type of promotion.

She's not only suing for herself ... Byrd wants to make this a class action suit against TBS, CNN and Time Warner. To be clear, she never worked at CNN, but seems to be gunning for all Turner properties.

Patty Hearst was a rape victim and it's deplorable to run a movie or television show viciously attacking her ... this according to her family.

Hearst family sources tell TMZ ... Patty's relatives are beside themselves over the upcoming film and TV docuseries based on the book, 'American Heiress' by Jeffrey Toobin. The film and TV series paint Patty as a woman who embraced her captors and then tried to manipulate the system during her trial.

The family says Toobin's sources for the book are sketchy ... notably Bill Harris, one of Patty's captors, and Steve Weed, her former fiance who himself was disgraced.

Our sources say the best evidence that these projects are hit pieces is how they downplay Patty Hearst's rape ... which set the stage for a harrowing 19 months of captivity. To minimize rape, they say, is appalling but not surprising in a project driven by men. According to family sources, "When you strip it away in the midst of all this #TimesUp, #MeToo and 'listen to the victim' they are essentially saying she loved it. She was asking for it."

We're told the family's stance is this -- "They are making a victim who suffered, and still suffers, culpable for her trauma while showing a blatant disregard for the victim and the human aspect of the story. This is another example of men trivializing women."

Danielle Bregoli is unimpressed at Anderson Cooper, thinks Andy Cohen looks like a human Q-tip and doesn't care these "60-to-70-year-old men" trashed her during their CNN New Year's Eve show.

We got the 14-year-old rapper at LAX, and she made it crystal clear ... Anderson and Andy are waaaay outside her demo. Her point was that ancient Anderson had no reason to know who she was or what she's done given his position in life -- aka old.

CNN says it's gotten to the bottom of Anderson Cooper's Trump-bashing tweet ... and all signs point to a forgetful assistant.

The mystery was cleared up Wednesday when the network said the message was sent from Cooper's assistant in NYC, while Anderson was in D.C.

CNN says the assistant, who's been on the job for 10 years, left his phone unlocked and unattended at the gym, and someone grabbed it and fired off the tweet. He's apparently the only other person besides Anderson with access to the account.

As we reported ... Anderson's verified Twitter account replied to Trump early Wednesday morning -- calling 45 a "tool!" and a "Pathetic loser."

Roy Moore's spokesman was a deer in the headlights when he got into a brief, but epic, debate with CNN's Jake Tapper about Muslims swearing on Bibles.

Ted Crockett was a guest on Tapper's show Tuesday when Tapper asked him why Moore doesn't believe Muslims can serve in Congress. Crockett fired off a shaky explanation related to Muslims and the Bible -- but, when Jake dropped some legal knowledge on him ... there was super awkward silence. Like, biblical.

Things got even more uncomfy when it came to the topic of homosexuality.

Less than 2 hours to cast your vote, Alabama!

The Game has some strong advice for all those judging LaVar Ball's parenting tactics -- DON'T -- 'cause he says whatever the Ball family leader decides to do, it's in the best interest of his kids.

TMZ Sports spoke with the Compton rapper at Ace of Diamonds in West Hollywood about LaVar pulling LiAngelo outta UCLA ... and Game says no matter how he personally feels about the move, LaVar's doing what he thinks is best for his sons.

LaVar Ball says the punishment UCLA dropped on his son, LiAngelo, is worse than him going to jail ... saying the school shouldn't "hang him on a cross" over one mistake.

TMZ Sports broke the story ... LaVar is pulling LiAngelo from UCLA due to the school's decision to indefinitely suspend his son. The Ball family patriarch now tells CNN's Chris Cuomo the decision wasn't just his and, in fact, Gelo agreed with the call.

LaVar says Gelo trusted him to make the decision because ... he was gonna be 1 and done -- leaving UCLA after one season, and then heading to the NBA or Europe.

LaVar says there's no reconsidering -- the decision's done.

LiAngelo -- along with LaVar -- also appeared on the Today show ... and talked about shoplifting in China, getting caught by the cops, and spending time in Chinese jail.

CNN political analyst Angela Rye is getting flooded with menacing threats, and she says it began after she started dating Common ... TMZ has learned.

According to court docs, Rye said she's received annoying, harassing and threatening messages on her phone, social media and email. She says they were just annoying and derogatory at first, but got scary when the sender got specific.

Angela and Common reportedly became a thing over the summer -- and cops say some of the messages referenced locations they visited that were not publicized. Then on August 5, Rye got an email that included the following: "Yr dumb dead ass gonna be found in a river" and "Let me catch ya ass I'm put the paws on ya."

LAPD obtained search warrants to dig through the sender's social media. They have his or her screen name, and we're told the Threat Management division is on the case.

Andy Cohen's stoked about co-hosting CNN's New Year's Eve show with his pal, Anderson Cooper, this year, but has severe amnesia about the comedian who had the gig before him.

The 'Watch What Happens Live' host was at LAX when he told us he and Anderson are already prepping for their 4-hour spectacular. He got really quiet though when we asked if he'd talked to Kathy Griffin -- who CNN fired from the NYE show after the Trump beheading photo debacle.

Andy's response was hilarious -- unless you're Kathy. Remember, she called Anderson "spineless" when he publicly called her out over the Trump thing. It seems Andy's holding a grudge.

If you never saw that classic Mariah response to someone asking her about J Lo, just watch ... Andy does a dead-on impression.

Don Lemon's as ready as he can be for nuclear war, but it seems sort of pointless ... because he's not even on his own list of who'll make it out alive.

Our photog got the "CNN Tonight" host at LAX Thursday and asked if his network prepares them for the world going nuclear -- who knew? It does ... sort of.

Don says CNN holds training classes every couple of years and the office is stocked with survival packs.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders went on the attack over "fake news" -- citing the CNN debacle -- then got raked over the coals by a White House reporter.

The Deputy White House Press Secretary chastised CNN over its retracted story ... which connected a Trump aide to a Russian investment fund. She started attacking the media in general too, and that's when The Sentinel reporter Brian Karem went off.

Piers Morgan's not bashing CNN for going after huge ratings with stories about President Trump and Russia, but thinks their Prez-bashing is dangerous journalism ... and led to embarrassment.

Piers, Editor-at-Large of Dailymail.com, tells TMZ he's not surprised CNN is now in trouble over an undercover vid coming out suggesting its Trump/Russia coverage is BS ... because they've been pushing the narrative too hard for too long.

This video clip is swirling around ... showing a CNN supervising producer saying the network's coverage of the Russia/Trump investigation is "mostly bulls***" but it's being covered to death for ratings.

John Bonifield, CNN's supervising producer of the network's health unit, is caught on undercover video saying the network is getting great ratings from trying to tie the Trump Administration to the Russian interference in the election.

Bonifield says CNN doesn't have the goods, but it's nonstop coverage is all about attracting viewers.

The video was produced by James O'Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, a super conservative blog.

Don Lemon is torn over Megyn Kelly's controversial interview with radio host Alex Jones -- but ultimately seems to think he's not worth the airtime.

We got the CNN anchor at LAX and asked what he thought about the backlash against Megyn for interviewing the Infowars host ... who's theorized the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.

Some parents of victims are blasting Megyn, and lobbying NBC to yank the interview. Don, at first, had Megyn's back ... saying sometimes journalists have to go to "dark places."

On a personal level though ... Don dismisses Jones as a total phony who doesn't deserve a platform.

Larry King's not down with everyone piling on Kathy Griffin for her Trump beheading photo fiasco ... especially his old bosses at CNN.

Larry, formerly Mr. CNN, took the network to task Thursday at LAX. He admits his friend Kathy's photo was in "terrible taste" ... but believes it didn't rise to the level of a fireable offense.

He believes her apology should've been enough for CNN to let it go. It's also very clear Larry's pining for the old days at CNN when someone else had the reins.

One of Fox News' most outspoken Donald Trump supporters is giving major props to CNN for firing Kathy Griffin.

We got Judge Jeanine Pirro Wednesday in NYC, where she told us CNN firing Kathy over her Trump beheading stunt was supremely appropriate -- adding Kathy's lucky if she's not facing criminal charges.

Most people agree with Jeanine -- normalizing violence toward the President is wrong, no matter which Prez is in the Oval.