<p>Is The Weather Channel a business or entertainment?</p><p>That's the question U.S. Magistrate Christopher Hagy asked lawyers on Monday during an evidentiary hearing on an age discrimination case. The answer may help determine a lawsuit filed by former reporter Marny Stanier Midkiff, who claims the Atlanta-based network dismissed her in favor of younger, sexier forecasters.</p><p>Midkiff, who was 41 when she was fired in 2003, claims the network purged older employees, particularly women. Her lawyer, Dan Klein, introduced an October 2002 memo from Terry Connelly, a network official, that said viewers described the network's female broadcasters as matronly, dowdy and old.</p><p>"What does it matter?" Hagy asked during the hearing. "Are you telling me if I'm running a motion picture studio and I need a starlet or I need a 19-year-old, that's illegal?"</p><p>Klein argued that the network crossed the line when it fired Midkiff.</p><p>"No one's going to say you have to hire a woman to play Macbeth," he said. "But in the business world, to impose limits on sex and age and professions, such as reporting ..."</p><p>Hagy abruptly cut him off. "Is The Weather Channel business or entertainment?"</p><p>To Midkiff, the answer is a no-brainer.</p><p>"It's a business," she said.</p><p>For eight years, she was a manager for the network's on-air meteorologists in a job that required her to appear on air about 20 percent of the time.</p><p>When her position was cut, she said, she was not offered an on-air role simply because of her age.</p><p>"We're not saying the company's prohibited from making a decision based on looking proper. Even based on whether the person's good-looking," Klein said. "But not age."</p><p>Bill Boice, who represents The Weather Channel, would not comment at Monday's hearing on the company's position on the question, but argued Midkiff's firing was simply a way to free up money for future investment. "There's no evidence of any pretext to the reduction of force," he said.</p><p>Still, the debate over whether the network is a business or entertainment promises to play a role in the case.</p><p>Hagy, shifting in his seat, said TV networks may fear losing ratings points with certain casts.</p><p>"Fifty years ago," Klein replied, "Major League Baseball knew with the same certainty that a portion of its audience wouldn't accept a black player."</p>
