AGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

Robert Hilburn better hope he dies before he gets too old.

Longtime Washington Post rock critic Richard Harrington is filing a suit against the newspaper for "age discrimination." The 53-year-old writer was demoted to a part-time job on the weekend section after being replaced by 36-year-old David Segal, a writer from the business section with little experience covering music. The suit asks for "injunctive relief and monetary damages for injuries sustained as a result of the [paper's] discrimination against him based on age..."

"This is a straightforward age case," said Michael Kane of the Washington law firm of Cashdan, Golden & Kane. "They took somebody who has been doing a job adequately for 20 years and replaced him with somebody 20 years younger."

Editors at the Post thought they'd avoid a suit by granting Harrington full benefits for working just 19 hours a week, which is more than most rock critics work in a month.

Will this case ever go to a jury? "We haven't had any talks, but if there is a reasonable settlement offer, I'm sure Richard will give it consideration," said his attorney. "It's unfortunate that it came to this, but he obviously has to do what he has to do to protect his rights."

Post VP and Counsel Mary Ann Werner insisted the paper proceeded lawfully in its dealings with Harrington.

"I think it is fair to say that we were surprised. We understand that Richard was disappointed in our decision to change music critics, but it was not a decision that we made lightly or quickly. We discussed our reasoning with him at the time, and it had nothing to do with his age. We just objected to him blasting that damn Limp Bizkit album all day long."