Rupert Murdoch just can’t catch a break these days: He’s waging war against Google, The New York Post‘s readership is down, and he’s got to deal with this Glenn Beck debacle for calling Barack Obama racist. On top of that there has been this scandal of Sandra Guzman, the editor who was fired from The Post for after speaking out against their cartoon portraying Obama’s stimulus package as a dead monkey, which has raised complaints of racism from the NY Association of Black Journalists, among other groups. (The Post has denied there is any connection between the complaint and her termination.)

Now Guzman has come forward with a 38-page complaint against The Post and its editor in chief Col Allan for not only being racist, but sexist as well. Some of the highlights of the suit, after the jump.

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Today is Liz Smith‘s last column at the New York Post. Even if you are not the most regular reader is does seem like just one more sign that newspapers as we know them are not long for this world. Also, somewhat amazing is the fact that she received the news from editor Col Allan (in a letter!) more than two weeks ago, and it was only made public this week. Apparently, the woman knows how to keep a secret when need be! Anyway, Smith is over at The Daily Beast talking with fellow former gossiper extraordinaire Lloyd Grove about her abrupt departure — oh to have been a fly on the wall for this conversation! Here’s a taste:

Lloyd: Now Col sent you a letter. Did he ever tell you anything in person about this?

Liz: No, no one has spoken to me. At the end of January I wrote a letter to Rupert because Col Allan hasn’t spoken to me in a year, so I said I was anxious to re-sign and wanted to go on working and hoped to die with my boots on at my desk and all that stuff. And Rupert didn’t answer. And then Col sent me a very nice letter saying he was sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, and they had economic difficulties, et cetera, and they were not renewing my contract. So I’ve never talked to anybody there.

But I will go bravely on, move on more fully to the wowowow.com and keep up writing the column every day to the Tribune Syndicate, and keep writing for Variety twice a week.

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You know times are extremely, badly, very tough when even Liz Smith is falling victim to the Recession! The Times City Room blog reports that Thursday will be the gossip doyenne’s last! Apparently currently nefarious editor Col Allan informed her in a letter earlier this month that her contract would not be renewed due to “unprecedented economic gales.”

Smith says that when her column was dropped down to three times a week last year she protested: “I had meetings with everybody. I carried on. Didn’t do any good. Mr. Allan is firmly at the helm of The New York Post, and I was never under the impression that I was his cup of tea….Oh, yeah, I had a meeting with Rupert. He said he wouldn’t interfere with Col Allan. Well, isn’t he right? Shouldn’t publishers believe in their editors?”

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There must be some joke here to be made about hell freezing over and monkeys flying. (Anyone know the last time Rupert Murdoch wrote a personal letter of apology for his paper?) Anyway, as sort-of speculated by Michael Wolff the other day it seems that Rupe was not happy about the chimpanzee cartoon. Not sure anyone really anticipated this sort of response so quickly — there’s definitely no ‘sort-of’ about it — however it appears that Rupe hopes to put an end to the controversy before it gets any further out of hand. It remains to be seen whether this will assuage the protesters and it’s interesting to note there is no mention made of editor Col Allan or his future at the paper.

As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me.

Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted.

Over the past couple of days, I have spoken to a number of people and I now better understand the hurt this cartoon has caused. At the same time, I have had conversations with Post editors about the situation and I can assure you – without a doubt – that the only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation. It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such.

We all hold the readers of the New York Post in high regard and I promise you that we will seek to be more attuned to the sensitivities of our community.

Man did the New York Post unleash a can of worms (barrel of monkeys) last week when, for reasons still unexplained, it decided to publish Sean Delanos‘ cartoon depicting two cops shooting a rampaging chimp that many have interpreted to represent Barack Obama. After a slew of protests last week the Post offered a sort-of apology, which appeared to only sort-of work. Now the NAACP is calling for the removal of both the Post‘s editor Col Allan as well as Delanos saying that the cartoon was “an invitation to assassinate President Barack Obama.”

Should the New York Post editor and cartoonist be fired over the Chimp cartoon?
( polls)

Meanwhile, Michael Wolff says (video after the jump) Rupe isn’t happy about the state of affairs at all: “I would say actually slightly educated speculation is he is livid…He is actually rather a fan of Barack Obama’s, plus he’s positioning himself vis-a-vis this new administration, so [for] his New York Post to come along and be so out of sync, so tone deaf, so off the point, to put it mildly is going to be a problem for a lot of people there.”

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Perfect. It’s not every day that Post EIC Col Allan sets off an international scandal, complete with strippers and born-again Christian politicians. Back in 2003, Allan went to strip club Scores with Australian shadow foreign affairs minister Kevin Rudd, a religious Christian who’s tipped to become the country’s next prime minister. All well and good… It’s understandable that Rupert Murdoch would have an interest in Allan wining and dining an influential Aussie politician; it’s also understandable that Allan, an Australian, would want to spend time with Rudd.

Then Syndey’s Sunday Telegraph broke the story that Rudd got a bit too excited at the club. In fact, Scores management kicked Rudd and fellow guest MP Warren Snowdon out for “inappropriate behavior” which apparently included being a bit too grabby with the dancers. Now the Australian press is having a field day with the story. Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer is suspected of leaking the story to the Telegraph.

— Neal Ungerleider

It’s back: Looks like the New York Post wants to run Page Six: The Magazine as a weekly Sunday supplement. The last time the paper did a magazine version of Page Six, it was a bit of a crash and burn. Anchored by an article about a thirteen-year-old Angelina Jolie, the magazine also featured pieces on fake names celebrities use to check into hotels, Dita Von Teese and Heidi Klum as well. Most importantly, that was more than a year ago — and the Post hasn’t tried the idea since then.

That is a long time in newspaper years, especially for the Post, as the whole Jared Paul Stern scandal proves. Now the big question is whether editor Col Allan will use an established Post staffer to run the supplement, or opt for outside talent.

Stern, by the way, is available.

Well, sort of. Yesterday, the scorned Page Six scribe posted a gossip item on his infrequently-updated Web site “Night & Day” blasting his former paper’s rival, Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman, while managing to sideswipe New York Post editor Col Allan as “ethically-challenged” — all in under 250 words!

June 3, 2007 — Is Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman shopping for his own ethically-challenged Brit editor to give the New York Post a run for its money? The “Spectator” column of London’s Independent on Sunday is reporting that ousted News of the World editor-in-chief Andy Coulson was recently offered the top spot at the Daily News, which is currently occupied by “limp-wristed” limey Martin Dunn.

Coulson, 38, a former gossip columnist for the London Sun, resigned from News of the World in January after one of the paper’s editors was jailed in the wake of a Royal phone-tapping scandal. The “Spectator” does not elaborate on details of Zuckerman’s offer, but Coulson turned it down in favor of a top public relations job with Britain’s Conservative party last week.

News of the Coulson gambit, which has not yet been reported Stateside, calls into question Dunn’s continued tenure under notoriously mercurial Snooze boss Zuckerman, who’s famous for blindsiding his editors. Of course, since no-one else was hired folowing the departure of former News EIC Michael Cooke in 2005, it’s just possible Coulson was invited to work under Dunn — for now. Interesting to note that Coulson’s replacement at News of the World, Rupert Murdoch‘s trashiest and best-selling tabloid, is former New York Post executive editor Colin Myler.

EARLIER:

Following the latest wrinkle in the Jared Paul Stern-Page Six Fix scandal, Nello’s Nello Balan defended his $1,000 gift to Page Six‘s Richard Johnson in this week’s New York magazine.

“Parties, strippers, $50,000 trips, and what everybody focuses on is that Christmas gift in 1997. It’s impossible that I was thinking if I give a Christmas gift that would influence someone’s opinion of me or do something for me. There’s nothing behind that Christmas gift. It’s not an obligation. It’s a thought.”

We asked three former Page Sixers — Jared Paul Stern, Fernando Gil, Ian Spiegelman — what, exactly, $1,000 could buy you at Page Six.

Stern said something about Col Allan‘s “y-front” pants. Gil dodged the question (“I think that money would be better spent on weed.”) Spiegelman, though, gave us this answer:

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Today’s Page Six slammed its former scribes Jared Paul Stern and Ian Spiegelman after alleging that Stern was threatening to sue the Post and make public a four-page list of “lies and smears” aimed at his former colleagues.

Post editor Col Allan said the paper, “as a matter of principle, wouldn’t pay even one cent to the litigious Stern,” although it’s unclear whether or not Stern was seeking money.

We asked Stern — who filed a lawsuit against Ron Burkle and Bill and Hillary Clinton earlier this year — what, in fact, he was seeking. It appears Stern wants the Post to reinstate him after federal prosecutors did not charge him with the extortion of Burkle.

Here’s his response via e-mail:

The statement they issued originally was that I’d been “suspended pending the outcome of the investigation,” so we asked that I be re-instated when I was exonerated. This is yet another of their desperate attempts at a pre-emptive attack where they just end up shooting themselves in the foot.

We’ve been asking that they make good on their promise and re-instate me as Books editor, editor of the Page Six magazine and Page Six contributor since I was exonerated.

Ian’s statement was provided merely to demonstrate that the Post’s claims that I was some kind of “abberation” or “rogue” (their exact words) who violated company policy were not true and held me in a false light. We were only interested in coming to an amicable resolution.

FishbowlNY’s Selected Coverage of the Jared Paul Stern Case: