LYNNE White is seeing red.

The popular host of WB’s Morning News host who was abruptly canned right after the show on Friday (after five years and two Emmys) says being over 40 over there can be a lethal career move.

“They have now fired three women over 40 in the last two months,” White fumed to The Post yesterday. “The other two were longtime reporters – Pauline Lui and Rosemary Gomez.

“But at least they were given notice. Me they just ripped off the air and told never to come back! Just like that. I had no clue it was coming.”

So is the WB11 simply reluctant to showing females over 40 – no matter how gorgeous – or are those longtime, expensive employees expendable and easily replaceable with younger, cheaper talent?

“What I’ve been told,” White said, “is that I was one of the highest paid people there, and they didn’t want to pay [that kind of money]. So I was replaced with a younger, cheaper person [Sukanya Krishnan], who happens to be very close with the executive producer.”

After Friday’s “Morning News” aired, White was called into News Director Karen Scott’s office. “She just said, ‘We’re not renewing you. This is your last day on the air. You can take what you want – and we’ll send the rest.’

“I was in shock. The contents of my office was at my home within hours.”

It got worse. “There was a woman sitting there from Human Resources,” White says, “and a guard outside. Can you imagine? More like inhuman resources. Anyway, this woman said, ‘Do you have any keys? Do you have any ID to the building, I need that.’ When I handed it over, she said, ‘Do you have anymore?’

“In fact even Karen [Scott] looked like she was going to cry so I got up and hugged her. I didn’t know what else to do.”

The exec producer, Lauren Petterson, is, White maintains, a close friend of Krishnan, who was already on the air yesterday morning. “Lauren was MIA for three days last week,” White recalls, “and it turns out she was off-site [taping] promotions for her ‘best friend’ Sukanya.” One thing is for sure; the promos had definitely been done, because they began airing as early as Saturday.

The troubles between White and Petterson aren’t new. In fact, White, a woman of color, says that one time Peterson, who is white, once castigated her on-set, saying, “Your hair looks like a $ó&*ing wig!’ “Another time Craig Treadway, [an African-American] and I were co-anchoring, and there was a breaking story in New Jersey. We were asking the traffic reporter what was happening. An anchor’s job is to ask questions, and a reporter’s job is to answer

them.

“Suddenly Lauren came running out, screaming, ‘Do not ask any questions – do not!’ It was shocking, like I didn’t know what we were doing. So, yes, I think she’s biased,” White said.

Scott disagrees with White’s assessment, and told The Post yesterday, “Her contract was up, and we didn’t renew it.” When asked why White had been asked to leave Friday even though her contract isn’t up until April, Scott would say only “no comment.”

What now for White?

“I’m not bitter. I think everything happens for a reason, and I think there’s a show out there for me that will appreciate who I am.”

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“I was replaced with a younger, cheaper person, who happens to be very close with the executive producer.”