In a development that the tabloid had to see coming, fired editor Sandra Guzman has sued the New York Post. She claims she was let go because she protested over a political cartoon that many called racist. But in her complaint, she really let loose on a tabloid culture that she called “a hostile work environment where female employees and employees of color have been subjected to pervasive and systemic discrimination and/or unlawful harassment based on their gender, race, color and/or national origin.”
The Huffington Post has the complaint. In it are a lot of juicy details (if they are true), including:
• That the publication’s goal, according to D.C. bureau chief Charles Hurt, was to “destroy [President] Barack Obama.”
• That notorious editor Col Allan once showed her and a few other female employees a naked picture of a man, as a joke.
• That Allan “rubbed his penis up against” a female colleague “and made sexually suggestive comments about her body, including her breasts, causing that female employee to feel extremely uncomfortable and fearing to be alone with him.”
• That as a Latina, Guzman was subjected to derogatory language, being called “Cha Cha No. 1,” and having to listen to people sing songs from West Side Story at her.
• That a female colleague of Guzman’s was “sexually propositioned” by a white male editor who told her, “If you give me a blow job, I will give you a permanent reporter job.”
• That “the last five employees who were recently terminated by Paul Carlucci, the Publisher of the Post … Have all been black and/or women of color.”
The Post’s lawyers are reviewing the complaint (which weighs in at 36 pages), so at this point their only comment is this: “Sandra’s position was eliminated when the monthly in-paper insert, Tempo, of which she was editor, was discontinued, reflecting the dramatic decline in ad sales across our industry.” This one is going to be big, people.
NEW YORK POST LAWSUIT: Shocking Allegations Made By Fired Employee [HuffPo]
