Former New York Post editor Sandra Guzman has sued both the paper and News Corp, alleging that she “was terminated on September 29 in retaliation for complaints about allegedly pervasive racism and sexism at the newspaper,” according to Reuters.
The 38-page complaint, available at The Huffington Post, catalogues a vast array of racist, sexist, and generally bad behavior by Post staff–far beyond the cartoon originally connected with Guzman’s dismissal.
For example:
“On one occasion when Ms. Guzman and three female employees of the Post were sharing drinks at an after-work function. Defendant [editor in chief Col] Allan approached the group of women, pulled out his blackberry and asked them ‘What do you think of this?’ On his blackberry was a picture of a naked man lewdly and openly displaying his penis.”
And:
When she would walk by certain offices at the paper, Guzman alleges, editors would routinely sing songs from West Side Story — a nod to her Hispanic heritage — including the tune: “I want to live in America.”
And:
“A White male senior editor sexually propositioned a young female Copy Assistant, telling her that ‘If you give me a blowjob, I will give you a permanent reporter job.'”
And, for what it’s worth:
“Charles Hurt, the Post‘s Washington D.C. Bureau Chief and a high ranking journalist at the newspaper, [told Guzman] that the Post‘s ‘goal is to destroy Barack Obama. We don’t want him to succeed.'”
