Sandra Guzman was an editor at the Post charged with running, among other things, a section aimed at Latino readers. After the paper published a Sean Delonas cartoon depicting President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee being gunned down by white police officers, she complained internally about what she saw as the paper's persistent and overt racism under the leadership of Australian he-man Col Allan. Then she got fired.

Yesterday, she filed a complaint in federal court alleging systematic racism in the Post's hiring, firing, and editorial practices, and depicting Allan as a stupid, giggling frat-boy who likes to show his female employees pictures of naked men for kicks. The complaint has all sorts of damning allegations—you can read the whole thing here, but some of the good bits are below. Guzman has separately filed a complaint against the Post with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The lawsuit comes just one day after the paper fired reporter Austin Fenner, one of the few remaining African-American reporters on the paper's staff—we're told there are just three others, one of whom has been on an extended sick leave for most of the year. We're also told that the paper—a metro daily in New York City—has no African-American editors, and hasn't for nine years. UPDATE: A tipster points out Robert George, an editor on the Post's editorial page, is an African American. Our sources on the Post's demographics were thinking of the news and features pages.

SECOND UPDATE: According to two other tipsters, business editor Jay Sherman is an African American as well. For the record, we asked a rep for the Post about the paper's demographics, and got an e-mailed statement, printed below, in response.

We've contacted the Post to confirm that and for a response to Guzman's complaint, and we'll publish it when we get one.

Here are some of the allegations:

The Post, Guzman says, was a "hostile work environment" for women and non-white staffers, who are subject to "pervasive and systemic discrimination" and "harassment":

Allan's "inappropriate and sexist comments and conduct have been widely known throughout" the Post. For instance, he likes to show ladies what penises look like. He thinks it's funny!

He also, Guzman says, likes to rub his penis up against his female employees, whether they want him to or not:

Other editors at the paper, following Allan's classy lead, have taken to offering female staffers better jobs in exchange for blow jobs:

Allan's colleague Les Goodstein, a News Corp. senior vice president, thinks latin ladies are hot, and told Guzman so. He also liked to lick his lips while staring at other women's breasts in her presence:

The beef that precipitated Guzman's firing was over a drawing by Sean Delonas, a racist, gay-hating, and—worst of all—astoundingly humorless cartoonist. The Barack-Obama-Is-a-Dead-Chimp cartoon is not his first exceedingly tasteless offering, and at one point, Guzman says, Delonas had the bright idea of depicting Jews as sewer rats, a pitch that apparently got nixed:

Guzman's complaints about the cartoon fell on deaf ears, both because real men don't care about whiny P.C. minority-type people and because she just didn't get that the whole point of the New York Post is to "destroy Barack Obama." At least that's what she says the paper's Washington bureau chief told her:

Col Allan certainly didn't care about P.C. minority-type people: When some of them staged a protest outside his newspaper, he laughed at them because "most of them are minorities and the majority are uneducated." Unlike the Post's highly sophisticated, Sean Delonas-loving readership:

Allan felt the same way about the vanishingly small number of non-white employees he oversees. When one of them approached him to discuss his feelings about the cartoon, Allan simply walked away:

After Guzman made her feelings public in an e-mail stating that she had raised her objections to the cartoon to management—an e-mail that got picked up by the Huffington Post and other blogs—Allan, she says, launched a crusade against her. His animus, according to Guzman, overwhelmed his news judgment. In August, Guzman—who is a personal friend of Justice Sonia Sotomayor—was invited as a guest to a White House reception celebrating Sotomayor's confirmation. No other reporters were to be present. Guzman asked for permission to cover and report on the event, and Allan said no. Granted, her personal relationship and status as a guest would make such an assignment weird, but a) it could have been disclosed and presented as an insider account, and b) since when has the Post cared about conflicts of interest? Especially when they have a chance to get an exclusive about a highly newsworthy event? Of all the transgressions listed in Guzman's complaint, this is perhaps the most shocking—that Allan let his hatred of Obama, Sotomayor, and Guzman kill a potential scoop.

There's much more, so do read the complaint in its entirety. We're sure Rupert Murdoch will, using his sophisticated racism-detecting system to determine that Guzman is full of it. Because if Glenn Beck's not a racist, then Col Allan certainly isn't, right?

UPDATE: The Post has released a statement responding to the complaint.

This lawsuit has no merit and is based on charges that are groundless. As previously stated, Ms. Guzman's position was eliminated when the section she edited was discontinued due to a decline in advertising sales.

According to a story in the New York Times today (in which the NYT tries very hard to suppress its glee), the Post's circulation has fallen by 30% in less than three years, to just a hair over half a million; and its financial losses were around $70 million last year, making the paper an expensive habit even by Rupert Murdoch's standards. And the fact that Rupert's adding local reporting to the WSJ makes Post reporters (reasonably) nervous they're falling out of favor.

We must not let this perpetually money-losing right-wing tabloid fall from grace! New York would be such a boring newspaper city without a loud, drunk voice of opposition. A few helpful suggestions:

• Andrea Peyser's sexxxy, but is she sexxxy enough? Millions of people in New York have sex every day without being mentioned in Andrea Peyser's column. Work on that.
• Col Allan is drunk, but is he drunk enough? Secretly rig the water fountains to emit gin, if you haven't done so already.
• Sean Delonas is racist, but is he racist enough? Racist cartoons are all well and good, but try upping Sean's visibility by getting him out there on the street, among the people, beating up minorities, then quick-sketching it on a blog. After he's all done promoting his children's book.

The cherry on the sundae was a phone call late at night from a mysterious voice inquiring, "What cha doin?" It was none other than Warren Beatty who wanted to say I was on an upper path now and better off and he encouraged me to really develop my Web and Internet skills. "Learn to control the Internet yourself; don't depend on people to help you."...We ended the chat with him remarking, "I just wanted to call because, as you know, you are in a class by yourself!"

Many other celebrities support Liz as well! You will find the entire list lovingly detailed in her column. How many congratulatory emails from Sly Stallone did you receive, Col Allan? Yea. [Variety; Pic via]

Former Daily News gossip Lloyd Grove asked Smith to open up about getting canned, and boy did she ever. Though Smith said the loss of her gossip column was "emasculating," she (still) thinks gossip as a trade is dead and pointless and stupid, because what's with the kids these days and their non-stars? Cheryl Crane and Johnny Stompanato — now those were some celebrities.

Since gossip is absurd, Smith these days is "doing philosophical journalism." We're not sure if she's talking about her WowOWow column on breast augmentation, or the one about how she sleeps naked, or maybe the one about "the best public bathroom in NYC." (Oh, Liz.)

But the point is, all the other gossips are fools. Which Smith has been saying for a while, but now she names names, including ours.

Page Six gets it:

I read Page Six mystified every day, and everybody I talk to agrees with me. They don’t know who anybody is.... Well, it’s almost like they just dump a bunch of chicken feed out there and there’s no bones in it.

Here's a dig at the Post generally and (probably) at Aussie editor Col Allan specifically:

The New York Post, I hate to say this, is not a New York newspaper. It doesn’t love New York, it hasn’t adjusted to New York. It’s like aliens came down. It’s a fun newspaper at times. I always liked its saucy, vivid, way, but it has no New York heart. I figure they didn’t like me because I was alien to them.

Another swipe when asked about "sites like Perez Hilton and Gawker"

I don’t think they mean anything either... I wouldn’t give any credence to most of the stuff I read. I mean, there are no publishers, no editors, no lawyers vetting anything [Gawker has all three of these things; but then again the Daily Beast has at least two and that didn't stop this error —ed.]. This is the problem with the Internet where everybody has a voice and we’re stuck with it.

...which leads directly into this swipe at herself:

We’re going to have the Internet even when we don’t have things to eat. We’re going to still have it. I’m all for it, and I’m doing it myself on the Wowowow.com site, but it’s not important. It isn’t even semi-important.

The only person who escapes Smith's ire is fellow old-school gossip Cindy Adams, who keeps it real in the N-Y-Pizzle. She's not some Aussie interloper or reality-TV zombie whippersnapper!

If Smith hates the gossip business so much, why did she try to renew her Post contract, telling Rupert Murdoch she "hoped to die with my boots on my desk?" Why is she still writing a syndicated newspaper column and for Variety? Maybe Smith is afraid her life will be meaningless if she gives up her longtime gossip gigs. But she should give retirement another look. Not because of what the Post thinks about her work, but because of what she thinks about it.

Rev. Al went on down to City Hall yesterday to let it be known that he will not be satisfied with Rupe's niceties. The vague "boycott" continues! Probably of more concern to News Corp, Al says he's meeting with the FCC today to lobby against News Corp's NYC ownership waiver. (Does that have any hope of success? No idea, but we hope so, for the sake of a good feud). Even Mayor Bloomberg is now being subjected to jeers over this sensitive issue, for being insufficiently outraged! We applaud Rev. Al's determination to keep this thing going, because he's guaranteed free space in the Daily News as long as he wants. Although his supporters should work on some better slogans:

[Murdoch] says in his statement this will never happen again. Well, he does not say how he intends to see that it never happens again," Sharpton said in front of supporters holding signs reading, "Yes we can shut you down NY Post!" and "How do you spell racism? New York Post."

[NYDN]

Col Allan cited the economy when he told her he wouldn't be renewing her contract:

"Like so many other newspapers around the nation, we are buffeted by unprecedented economic gales," Col Allan, the editor in chief of The Post, told Ms. Smith in a Feb. 9 letter that said he was not renewing the contract for what he called her "legendary column."

Well, it's been clear for a while that Col Allan and Liz Smith didn't care for each other. We saw this coming months ago. But it's still a sad thing. The batty lady is irrepresible, though! She's over at her womanly site, Wowowow.com, still writing about various and sundry topics, such as what a jerk Col Allan is. So you can find her right here, on the internet.

We'll be right there with you Liz! [City Room; Pic via]

UPDATE: NYP flack Steven Rubenstein sends us this additional statement from Col Allan: "The Post is grateful to have been able to publish Liz Smith's legendary column for so many years. We wish her the very best for the future."

The brief backstory: The Post is a right wing rag and has always been pretty well hated by New York's black community (see, for example, Public Enemy's "Letter to the New York Post"). During the Clinton administration, News Corp got a waiver from the FCC that allowed it to own and operate multiple TV stations and newspapers in the NYC market. At the time, Jesse Jackson was perceived as having some pull with the FCC; therefore, News Corp had to play nice with Jesse and Rev. Al during the Clinton years.

Once little Bush came in, though, News Corp was once again cozier with the administration than Jesse and Co. were, so they were able to go right back to their normal state of outright hostility towards black liberals. Now, Al's strategy is to use the cartoon controversy as an excuse to ask the FCC to review News Corp's waiver.

Could that really work? The FCC will naturally be somewhat less dick-riding to News Corp under Obama than it was under Bush, but this still sounds like a stretch. My sense is that this is just a bargaining chip, which could end up making Al Sharpton look foolish if it totally fizzles out. But that could just be leftover pessimism from the past eight years.

Media beef-starter Michael Wolff actually thinks that Post editor Col Allan is going to get canned for this whole cartoon thing! If News Corp really was in danger of losing its waiver, then it certainly wouldn't hesitate to throw the greasy Australian editor overboard. And the NAACP would certainly be satisfied with that. But it would seem more characteristic for News Corp to just say "Fuck you" to black New Yorkers and forge ahead as usual. That's what makes them so fun, and evil!

Sharpton said it's worse than Don Imus' derogatory comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team. The Post, Sharpton said, seems to play into the old stereotype of African Americans being monkeys.

There you have it! Hard to tell from the midday news tight shots, but it looks like they got at least a semi-respectable number of protesters out there, not that anyone at News Corp gives a fuck. Sharpton says if the Post doesn't "take some action" against Delonas and his editors, he'll lead a boycott of advertisers. To which Col Allan, we imagine, finished his Hot Pocket, licked his lips, turned to his editors, and said, "Fuck Al Sharpton." [CBS2]

Al Sharpton and Gov. David Paterson are criticizing Delonas' cartoon today, but Post editor Col Allan is backing up his favorite artiste, issuing this statement:

The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist.

Way to stay in character, Col. Unfortunately, we couldn't find Delonas' classic depiction of mayoral candidate Freddy Ferer "on his knees, kissing the rear end of a grotesquely obese Al Sharpton" anywhere online. [Update: A tipster mailed it in and we've added it below] But you can enjoy these blasts from the past. [Have more Delonas favorites? Email us!]

That pregnant transgender man—what are docs supposed to do with this freak? (This one was so clever he drew it twice)


A gay dude who married a woman—what next?


Muslim terrorists love Democrats. What else is new, huh?


Gays: Sheep fuckers.


Gays: Stereotypical prancing beacons of corruption.


Gays: They're destroying marriage, but at least they're not as bad as Liza Minnelli, who is a woman but nevertheless married David Gest, who is a prancing gay.


Women: Whores.


Gay pride? More like cross dressing freakazoids! Amirite?


Rosie O'Donnell is a fat butch lesbian. Haha.


Heather Mills has only one leg. Haha.

And Al Sharpton has a big ass. Which likes to be kissed.

Buckman's last byline in the paper came on Dec. 15: "Beast in Show: First Look at Patrick Swayze's New Series." And all Post editor Col Allan is saying, through a spokesperson, is "Mr. Buckman is no longer working at the New York Post."

Among the staff, there's been hints that his computer is now in the hands of law enforcement. And our tipster simply says, "It's serious." But really, your guess is about as good as ours.

It's known around the Post newsroom that Liz Smith despises Col Allan, the tabloid's grumpy, pugnacious Aussie editor. It was he who cut Smith's column down to [UPDATE: three] times a week, and she didn't appreciate it. Now, when forgetful people call her up to ask why she's not published more often, her response is, "CALL RUPERT." So she likely thinks Rupert Murdoch isn't a great boss, either!

It's widely assumed that Smith will leave the Post altogether when her contract comes up for renewal. That could put her at WowoWow full time, in which case: yikes.

[WowoWow]

UPDATE: A note from Liz Smith:

Thanks for today's ink re a boss of mine being a shit, but please note—my column in the Post runs three days, not two. All good wishes—-as many as you wish me, anyway. Liz Smith

Well, it sure helps when the club showers Post gossip reporters with freebies, like it used to do for Page Six's Chris Wilson. And Post editor Col Allan's affinity for bringing heads of foreign governments to Scores can't hurt. Seems like the celebrities themselves would prefer a little discretion about their lap dances, but from the club's perspective, all press is good press. It's really no different than a restaurant giving good seats to a critic, or a football team laying out a nice spread of cold cuts in the press box. Strip clubs are natural beat territory for gossip hounds, and it only makes sense that having the actual reporters in the house is a quicker way into the news than relying on those mysterious "spies." So if sightings at Rick's start popping up on Page Six with equal frequency now, you'll know Hanover took some freebies along with him. [Page Six]

UPDATE: According to Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici, Kelly missed the mark with his suggestion today that News editor Martin Dunn was on his way out in favor of Wallace. "I'm definitely tied in for the next couple of years, at least, and probably longer," Dunn said, citing his renewed contract. UPDATE: The Mirror's parent company, Trinity Mirror, confirms that Wallace rejected a job offer to man the News from owner Mort Zuckerman. UPDATE again: We asked uber-flack Steve Rubenstein whether there was any truth to the rumor that Allan was on his way out at the Post. "Simply not true. You are being spun," he told us. Managing editor Jesse Angelo concurs: "Puh-leeze, that is nonsense. Ridiculous on so many levels.
Your tipster is clearly smoking crack (or lamely carrying water for Martin Dunn after Keith Kelly piece today)." Drama! Intrigue! Conspiracy! Crack addicts! Spinmeistering! Ah, just another Friday at the New York Post.

New York Post Will Publish Weekly Page Six Magazine [NYT]
Journal Starts Monthly Magazine [WSJ]

UPDATE: Actually SO MUCH BETTER: Murdoch BROUGHT Col Allan to the meeting! Can you imagine?