Tuesday, November 10, 2009

SANDRA GUZMAN SUES NY POST


(Daily Intel)
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.

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