Austin Fenner, Ex-NY Post Employee, Sues The Paper, Charges Racism

Another former New York Post employee is suing the paper, alleging that he was subject to unfair employment practices and that editors engaged in racially-motivated news coverage.

Austin Fenner, who was fired from the Post on the same day that former editor Sandra Guzman sued the paper over her own dismissal, claims that he was "routinely humiliated," "openly cursed at" and subjected to "Jim Crow"-style segregation while working as a city desk reporter.

Using the same lawyer as Guzman, Fenner alleges that he too was fired from the paper both for being a minority (he is African-American) and for complaining about racist coverage. Fenner, like Guzman, publicly expressed his disappointment with a Post cartoon that depicted the author of the president's stimulus package as a chimpanzee shot dead by befuddled cops.

A spokeswoman for the New York Post, in an email to the Huffington Post, said that the allegations were "totally false and the claims of discrimination completely baseless."

The complaint filed by Fenner doesn't deliver as many jaw-dropping allegations as Guzman's complaint earlier this month. The 27-page document mainly asserts that editors repeatedly yelled profanities at Fenner, made him travel further and more frequently than his "White" colleagues and denied him the same resources that other reporters received to cover events. Such accusations are occasionally levied in other newsrooms, though the Post has a lengthy history of poor race relations in the newsroom.

There are, however, certain charges that do stick out. Fenner alleges that the two defendants -- Michelle Gotthelf, the metropolitan editor of the Post and Fenner's direct superviser as well as Daniel Greenfied, the assignment editor and deputy metropolitan editor at the paper -- banned him from entering the Post's newsroom for a five-month period.

"Specifically," the complaint alleges, "they told Mr. Fenner that he was forbidden from coming into the newsroom anymore unless he got their permission in advance... Mr. Fenner's ban from the newsroom was an act of utter humiliation designed to strip him of his dignity and self-respect as a reporter and as a man and was based on his race and/or color and implemented to punish him for his opposition to Defendants' discriminatory practices. It was also a throwback to the days of Jim Crow segregation."

The complaint also asserts that after the Post published the controversial chimpanzee cartoon, New York's Governor David Paterson approached the paper asking for an interview on the controversial matter.

"[T]hey refused a request by Governor David Paterson, the first Black Governor of the State of New York, to be interviewed about the cartoon," Fenner's complaint alleges. "Specifically, after Governor Paterson made it know that he wanted to be interviewed about the nature of that cartoon and had also agreed to be interviewed about any other subject, the White editors at the Post summarily refused to interview him.... Such a rejection of a sitting Governor is unprecedented and practically unheard of in journalism."

In alleging "discriminatory treatment, harassment and/or unlawful retaliation" at the hands of the paper's editors, Fenner lists Gotthelf, Greenfield, as well as News Corporation and the Post itself as defendants. His lawsuit comes just weeks after Guzman's, in which it was alleged that she and others were routinely subjected to misogynistic behavior, unfair hiring practices at the paper and an unlawful firing.

Both former employees are being represented by Ken Thompson of the firm Thompson, Wigdor & Gilly LLP.

Asked about Fenner's firing several weeks ago, a spokesperson for the New York Post said that the paper had "no comment on Mr. Fenner's employment status."

READ THE FULL COMPLAINT HERE:

fenner -

Comments

[PamperedHousecat]

10:58 PM on 12/02/2009

I understand "a job is a job", but if a person of color, a woman, a homosexual, a liberal, a person with decency and empathy, a person who knows right from wrong, or a person who breathes oxygen, would want to work for that rag.......

Well as my grandmother use to tell me, "you lays down with dogs, you gets up with fleas".

[Dukedraven]

02:58 PM on 12/01/2009

To "Davidariley":

Hopefully, if he proves the charges in court, he'll get a decent settlement.

[glorialovelace]

10:43 AM on 12/01/2009

These two cases -- Guzman and Fenner -- are not the only discrimination cases against the post. There have been several others that I remember, among them the case brought in 2003 by former Sunday Editor Marilyn Matlick, who claimed she was discrimated against because she was a woman, and was not Australian or British.

There's a brief account of Matlick's suit in the New York Times, April l2, 2003, page D8., or see:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/03/22/sauce.htm

In the Sydney Morning Herald story, Matlick says "Since on or about May 2001, the Post has demonstrated a pattern and practice of not hiring female executives, and of hiring executives who are of British and Australian national origin."

So it would seem that if you're not Australian and male, the NY Post is an odious place to work.

[glorialovelace]

10:13 AM on 12/01/2009

Unless you are white, male, Australian -- and possess a hollow leg -- the New York Post is an odious place to work.

There have been other discrimination lawsuits against the Post besides these two. A Huffpo reporter should be deployed to look them up.

Been there, done that.

[JavaManiac]

09:47 AM on 12/01/2009

In late 1999 I had a student's mother call my house and ask me if I knew her son and my teenage daughter were "talking". (Which is actually all it was)

She did not think this was appropriate - as my daughter was not 100% white (one parent being part Asian and part Hispanic). She wanted me to agree to this and talk to my daughter about why it would not be good to be anything more than friends with this boy!

I told her I felt sorry for her son - that she and her husband still had those kind of issues!

There are a lot of people out there who have unacceptable problems with race - but we should not tolerate it in the work place! Americans are not all one color or one race - we have to have acceptable and fair practices for all!

[noudidnt]

08:50 AM on 12/02/2009

I'm sure if your daughter was a highly paid athlete (or had that potential), his parents would have gone out of their way to push him on her. I speak from experience of observing several highly compensated professional athletes within my family having to deal with their leechy wh it e in-laws.

[Nickel1951]

09:37 AM on 12/01/2009

"POLYGAMY IS THE ANSWER!!!!! Where is it written that a man is bound to marry only one wife and no more? I think polygamy will solve this issue of men cheating on their wives if they are allowed to take 2nd and 3rd wives depending on the scale of their income. I concur the above option must be acceptable to all peace loving people. It works and I am a fun of that based on certain criteria."
quote from Africanus1

Sounds like you are part of the problem not part of the solution.

[Nickel1951]

09:27 AM on 12/01/2009

"AfricanusI" You must be victim. How is that working out for you?

[The Professor]

08:38 AM on 12/01/2009

I see nothing in this that there was racial discrimination at the Post against Fenner. Making unsubstantiated charges of racial discrimination need to be proved beyond doubt. There has been so many racial charges that racial discrimination itself is demeaned. It's becoming too late to play the race card.

[alreadybad]

12:13 PM on 12/01/2009

Yeah, well, I will not buy another NY Post, EVER.

[Nickel1951]

01:18 PM on 12/01/2009

I just called in your threat to the NY Post. They will reduce their daily print run accordingly. Thanks for allowing them to plan their production run more efficently.

[noudidnt]

08:51 AM on 12/02/2009

It's becoming tired and hackneyed to play the "race card" card.

[Nickel1951]

08:12 AM on 12/01/2009

"Throughout Shuki Khalili’s career, he suspected his name might be holding him back. When he worked for a Wall Street headhunter, he felt potential clients would blow him off when they heard his name. When he started his own business selling greeting cards, phones sales were initially a bust at first.

“I tried using an American name, ‘Andrew Warner,’ and suddenly I could at least engage them in conversation and sell them some ads so I could build my business,” he said. He now goes by Andrew Warner and runs a successful entrepreneurial resource site called Mixergy.com in Santa Monica, Calif."

Well "DUH"

[profitforless]

08:01 AM on 12/01/2009

I'm a New Yorker and I can tell you most of us think the NY Post is trash , at one point they tried to give it away for free at a promotion - no one wold take it . NY Post is Joke

[Nickel1951]

08:00 AM on 12/01/2009

"Throughout Shuki Khalili’s career, he suspected his name might be holding him back. When he worked for a Wall Street headhunter, he felt potential clients would blow him off when they heard his name. When he started his own business selling greeting cards, phones sales were initially a bust at first.

“I tried using an American name, ‘Andrew Warner,’ and suddenly I could at least engage them in conversation and sell them some ads so I could build my business,” he said. He now goes by Andrew Warner and runs a successful entrepreneurial resource site called Mixergy.com in Santa Monica, Calif."

Well "DUH"

Keep giving your children names that are spelled differently than any other words in the dictionary and often are phonetic at best and then wonder why just maybe they have a problem in school, work and life in general. Now just how hard is that to figure out? And how hard would that be to fix? You tell me.

[Rand]

10:12 AM on 12/01/2009

Yeah! How DARE anyone have an ethnic name which doesn't reflect YOUR ethnicity!

MANY years ago my mother's uncle wasn't given a chance for interviews because of HIS name. When Meyer Ferdinand applied for a job he was told that the position was filled. When he re-applied, two weeks later, using his middle-name (Raymond), he was always interviewed and got a job as an inspector with the (Now long defunct) Second Avenue Railway Company in NYC

The ethnicities may have changed, but the bigotry remains the same

[MoeB]

04:48 PM on 12/01/2009

LOL...yes, racism and bigotry will just go away if us crazy minorities stop naming ourselves silly non-white names like Austin, and Sandra.

Because, back when blacks where GIVEN white names, there was NO racism at all, correct?

[Nickel1951]

07:50 AM on 12/01/2009

"Police said Dominique Sharpton veered out of her lane, ran a red light and forced another car to swerve out of her way. After being ticketed, she and her mother cursed at the officers, ignored orders to return to their cars and resisted being handcuffed, according to a criminal complaint. Kathy Sharpton pushed an officer with her hands, police said in the complaint."

Now if this was a white lady and her daughter, they would have walked wouldn't they?

[mbazid]

08:51 AM on 12/01/2009

Your post is in the wrong story
But no they would not have walked away

[Nickel1951]

09:20 AM on 12/01/2009

Really? Maybe it isn't in the wrong story. Read the article again and think about it.

[MoeB]

04:53 PM on 12/01/2009

Where can I get details of this? Typically when you just run a red light, you shouldn't have to get out of your car to be ticketed. (suspicious police activity #1)

Were they placed under arrest for not returning to their car? Again, why were they BOTH told to get out the car?

[Nickel1951]

07:10 AM on 12/01/2009

The reputation that African American's have in the workforce wouldn't have anything to do with the behavior of African Americans in the workforce would it?

[davidariley]

08:04 AM on 12/01/2009

only to the racist mindsets who came up with those reputations and ignore the majority of examples that run contrary to them.

[Nickel1951]

09:33 AM on 12/01/2009

Really? Why don't you try and refute my claims rather than hiding behind the race card again? You know what I am talking about and yes, the majority of African Americans do not act that way but a large minority do. I live in Baltimore City by the way so don't claim I am clueless about the situation.

[JavaManiac]

08:13 AM on 12/01/2009

You must be a RepubliKLANner! Try stormfront.org - I think they have a blog for your types!

[Nickel1951]

09:29 AM on 12/01/2009

Go read a real American , Thomas Sowell and think about what he has to say about race in America. You will find it enlightening.

[Nickel1951]

06:55 AM on 12/01/2009

Why African American unemployment is twice as high as white or asian unemployment...is demonstrated by the attitudes shown on this thread. Here is but one small example.

"Sue them, they can own the rag plus get a feisty settlement."

WIth apologies to whatever the word "feisty" is supposed to mean in this context. But you get the idea.

Keep whinning the rest of us have had about enough of your massiah and his constant playing of the race card.

[davidariley]

07:13 AM on 12/01/2009

yes, ALL of the problems with black unemployment can be summed up by some comments made about a lawsuit, and NOT the type of attitudes exhibited in the lawsuit, itself.


still whinning (sic) about the "race card", while forgetting who used to own the deck?

[Nickel1951]

07:32 AM on 12/01/2009

A lot of the other problems with African American unemployment can be found in a 70% out of wedlock birth rate, massive drug and crime problems in the African American community, a failure of responsible parenting to the point that many young black men are not able to even handle a broom without training, and a general attitude that someone owes the African American something special. Well it is 2009 and it is about time the African American community took repsonsibility for it's own and started to figure out that a major reason that there is such a high failure rate for African American students is maybe more to do with poor parenting than "racism". End the vicitmization mentality or continue to live in the Democratic Socialist prison of the inner cities that you have so eagerly voted for yourselves.

[JavaManiac]

08:16 AM on 12/01/2009

A lot of the problem IS with people like you - who do not treat all people fairly!

Anyone can sue anyone else if they have cause.

I suppose you think women suing for sexual harassment meant that all women should be unemployable?

If the shoe fits... Sue them!

[Nickel1951]

09:26 AM on 12/01/2009

And what do you think the long term out come of the Lilly Ledbetter law will be? Less jobs for woman because employers will have to pay them the same as men even if they are shirking their work and unproductive or be sued. I am not saying woman are not as productive as men, generally in fact they are more productive, but when you create a special class of employee and allow that class to sue if they perceive that they are not being treated as they think they should be then you are asking for less jobs to be given to that group of employees. It is common sense. Same thing goes with the minimum wage destroying not increasing teenage employment. Yet the Progressives keep raising the minimum wage as jobs for teenagers disappear because few young workers are worth $7.50/hour.

[situationcritical]

06:40 AM on 12/01/2009

Newsflash. The President of the USA is a black man. The next 7 years is going to be about race.

Deal with it.