Arianna Huffington Sued by Freelancer Who Bemoans 'Slaves' on HuffPo 'Plantation'
A freelance blogger on Tuesday filed a class action lawsuit against Arianna Huffington for $105 million. The suit alleges that the Huffington Post's legion of unpaid bloggers are entitled to one third of the revenue from the site's sale to AOL in February.
Jonathan Tasini, who filed the lawsuit, compared Huffington to a "robber baron" in a blog post on Tuesday, and called her site a "blogger plantation - where her slaves work to build her fortune."
Tasini's hard-left perspective came through in his complaint (students of Marx will no doubt recognize his labor theory of value):
We live in a time of unrelenting class warfare. We are the richest nation on earth—yet that wealth is flowing into the hands of the few. The greatest stage for that class warfare is in the workplace: CEOs and their top executives believe that they are the most important part of the company and that they should reap an obscene portion of the value created by WORKERS.
The Huffington Post was, is and will never be, anything without the thousands of people who create the content. Ms. Huffington is acting like every Robber Baron CEO—from Lloyd Blankfein to the Waltons—who believes that they, and only they, should pocket huge riches, while the rest of the peons struggle to survive. Ms. Huffington stance has been clear: only she deserves the fruits of the labor of the people who work for her.
Actually, Arianna Huffington is worse than the CEOs of the banks, the Walton family of Wal-mart. At least, they pay their workers something—even if those wages aren’t enough to make ends meet.
Huffington pays zero. Nothing. Nada. [more below the fold]
Arianna Huffington is a hypocrite. While reaping money and building her "brand" based on books and speeches decrying the growing divide between rich and poor (I am not linking to those books in order to avoid giving her even more cash to pocket), Ms. Huffington is precisely acting to impoverish bloggers and create a blogger-plantation--where her slaves work to build her fortune.
The plantation line is absurd on its face. The Washington Examiner's Timothy Carney summed up everything wrong with the claim in a short headline: "Like slavery, only voluntary".
Hot Air's Ed Morrissey elaborated on the vacuity - and potential danger - of the claim:
The idea that Huffington was a slave-driver on a plantation is not just ridiculous, but insulting to those who suffered from actual slavery, past and present. No one forced writers and bloggers to publish for free at HuffPo. The fact that so many contributed without pay means that they must have felt that other factors compensated for their effort, such as exposure, taking part in the community, or just the satisfaction of seeing their work on line. They could just as easily have chosen not to contribute, a choice that actual slaves do not have. These writers understood the terms of the relationship when it started, and could have ended it at any time if they were not satisfied with it.
Now Tasini wants to change the terms ex post facto to get a chunk of compensation never promised to him or his colleagues. That runs a far greater moral and practical risk than Arianna’s arguable exploitation. It assumes that people cannot comprehend for themselves the agreements into which they enter, a direction that would undermine the entire basis of contractual and non-contractual business relationships. Huffington had every right, moral and legal, to rely on those agreements to explicit terms of publication, as did AOL in their purchase. It’s ludicrous to claim a third of the sale value of an asset from which contributors waived compensation from the start.
What are your thoughts on the suit? Do you find yourself siding with - gasp! - Arianna Huffington, or do you sympathize with her detractors?
*****UPDATE:
Lee Doren discusses the lawsuit in his latest "How the World Works" video, below, and touches on one angle I didn't mention here, and which I'll phrase as a question: is Huffington, a leftist "workers' rights" advocate, being hypocritical by not paying all of her bloggers? Let us know in the comments (and if you like the video, make sure you subscribe to Lee's YouTube channel).
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Comments
Gee
Submitted by rockyracoon on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 6:00pm.
I 'hope' he wins.
Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
WHO SAYS LEFTIES DON'T LIKE THE FREE MARKET?
Submitted by Duff on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 7:33pm.
They believe everybody should work for free. It's for the greater good.
Hmmmm, I have an idear?!
Submitted by David Kramer on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 6:10pm.
What do the progressives do? They infiltrate.
I say now that the "progressives" aka marxists have left the store open, time to go in and start posting some facts.
I think I will go in and post a few of my old articles and see if they stay up. Maybe shake things up a bit!
Sooooo. . .
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 6:11pm.
Does this mean I can expect a check from the MRC and NewsBusters in my mailbox soon?
Color me LOL.
The only thing worse than a self-centered, entitled leftist is..
Submitted by niner-four-whiskey on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 6:18pm.
The only thing worse than a self-centered, entitled leftist is a wealthy, self-centered, entitled leftist.
Funny how Hufffington, Michael Moore and others in the leftist agitprop industry will go on and on about how the workers aren't getting what the CEO's get and should be getting free healthcare and free food and free housing and more money and more time off and an endless list of things they should be entitled to as working stiffs, yet, their own crews don't get these things that they espouse so fervently - for everyone else to pay for. All this "social justice" that everybody - except them - is supposed to provide and pay for.
I really hope what goes around comes around.
I prefer to use another phrase...
Submitted by Wineguy13 on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 6:20pm.
coined by followers of Marx:"Useful Idiot" thy name is Tasini! As much as I belive in binding contracts, my over-developed sense of schadenfreude wants them both to lose the lawsuit.
Surplus Value is the concept of 'economic rent' applied to the Sahara.-Me
The Left Will Eat Their Own
Submitted by stratman on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 6:27pm.
This is a conundrum for the Left. On the one hand is their beloved HuffPo who has steadfastly supported the Lefts' causes. On the other hand, HuffPo has made too much money, for which the only answer is wealth redistribution. AOL, while providing entertainment and promotion of the Left's causes on its various mandatory channels and supported programs, is a bottomless pit of money which has a corporate responsibility to redistribute wealth.
Unless there is some secretive contractual issue we are unaware of, this should never reach trial and the whiners trying to extort money can go pound salt. Until then, and after, I will enjoy the madcap cannibal antics.
Liberals Don't Practice What they Preach!
Submitted by gruyere cheese on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 6:32pm.
The difference here is that Ms. Arianna has benefited from a Capitalist style government, yet she goes on the record critizing everything and anything that represents Capitalism. Same for Matt Lauer, Kaie Couric, etc... Liberals on the media want you to think that they care for the working people. They are very critical of the CEO's on Wall Street, Bankers, and so on, yet they reap the rewards with their high end salaries. The bloggers who write on Huffpo are Liberal and so, they believe in the ideology feed to them by the Liberal media. The lawsuit should go forward and settled in court.
Start your own blog, idiot!
Submitted by Tyromac on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 6:38pm.
".....who believes that they, and only they, should pocket huge riches, while the rest of the peons struggle to survive. "
Why doesn't he just start his own blog and then sell it for millions of dollars? He acts like someone is stopping him. He might have to risk his own money and he probably would rather someone else take the risk and just give him a cut. You want to beat Sam Walton? Come up with a better model than Wal-Mart and kick his ass - nobody is stopping anyone.
Blue on Blue lawsuits!
Submitted by Van Halen on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 6:50pm.
Blue on Blue lawsuits! Political porn!
Here's the new theme song for the Left:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExBMiuSzpko&NR=1
Just desserts.
Submitted by Slyrr on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 6:53pm.
Liberals LIE. They cheat, they steal, they do any disgusting thing to get what they want because without God as a moral benchmark, they think they are perfectly justified in looking out for themselves and themselves alone.
Using that generality, it's perfectly understandable the HuffnPuff would screw her minions over and walk off with all the cash.
And therefore, any blogger who trusted her and worked for her with the understanding that they might be rewarded for their loyalty deserves exactly what they got. You libutards knew she was a lying, greedy, cheating scumbag with the face of a bhudda and the heart of a scorpion.
Well, she stung you all right, and now she's leaving you to die poisoned in the gutter while she flits off to her mansion to nibble caviar dainties, sip champagne, and laugh at all you liberals who were dumb enough to trust her.
Your liberal politicians are screeching that anyone with more than $100,000 should have 90% of their money seized. Maybe you should put HER on top of your list.
Oh, the Irony
Submitted by rogue operator on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 7:00pm.
How do you like socialism in practice, Ahhhriiiaaaannnaaaahhhh?
That is like ADK
Submitted by shawn. on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 7:04pm.
Demanding a cut of NB profits for his fine editorials.
Not a lick of cents
Submitted by CobraMan on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 7:15pm.
Hay, idiot liberals, when you AGREE to publish on a site that doesn't pay you, you're not going to get any money. It just like writing a letter to the editor of the NYT's. You do it knowing that you're not getting paid. So, please, stop your whining and grow up!
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
WHO SAYS LEFTIES DON'T LIKE THE FREE MARKET?
Submitted by Duff on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 7:29pm.
They believe everybody should work for free. It's for the greater good.
It's only fair and Obama
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 7:33pm.
It's only fair and Obama supports redistributing wealth from the corporate greed pigs to the little guy. Isn't this what the left has been asking for? Hell I figured she would pay plus throw in a free steak knife set.
Is that Sam Cooke singing " chain gang" I hear in the background.
Typical Left Wing Hypocrites
Submitted by Comrade Jim on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 7:39pm.
groveling for money while telling everybody else to pay more taxes.
Huffy should give 90% to government and the bloggers should applaud.
Since the content was free
Submitted by dr-go on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 7:46pm.
the value would relate favorably with that of Newsweek which is, and was, zero.
That Tasini would now place a price on his work when he considered it valueless as submitted, is not only laughable but absurdly contrived. Perhaps he should have taken a course in Econ 101 and learned the implications of supply and demand.
He seems to live by the maxim that nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
Funny
Submitted by m1xram on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 7:57pm.
The blogger wants to get paid but won't get a paying job. Now that's humorous. Add to that he thinks it is hypocritical that the leader doesn't support Marxism. The moron should check his "Rules for Radicals, "the end justifies the means." The blogger just doesn't understand that, in his Marxist / Socialist utopia, the leader makes the rules and only the slaves follow them. He should be happy and love Big Brother. Otherwise, he will have to be "re-educated". See Bill Ayers for what that means.
The opposite of Left is Freedom.
they say there's one born every minute
Submitted by MidAmerica on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 8:01pm.
My uncle, during one of his between wives and jobs period of his life, was allowed to live in a rural house that had fallen into disrepair and was surrounded by a brushy hilly yard. He got to live there rent free and being of an artistic sort he began to clean up and clear out the property. He added a flower garden that continually grew, that also included lots of roses and in fact got so involved in them that a well known rose supplier used him as a tester. Over time of several years what had been an eyesore of a property was now a beautiful landscaped yard admired by all who passed by. The owner was very pleased with my uncle and thanked him whenever they met. But eventually the owner had to sell the property and he received a good price. What did my uncle get? ...thirty days notice.
We never felt sorry for him. He was an adult.
From each according to his
Submitted by Rebar002 on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 8:04pm.
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. Apparently, Arianna decided you didn't need jack, Jack.
Perhaps
Submitted by bobbys on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 8:08pm.
Perhaps this Mr Tasini could secure the services of Hamilton Burger to sue Cruella de Vil.
Hoisted by her own Petard
Submitted by LSBeene on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 8:13pm.
Hoisted by her own petard.
As much as I relish the delicious irony here - if we cheer for this hustler (the guy) and he wins, it sets a VERY bad precedent.
Can't believe I'm on the side of Arianna Huffington.
The Gall
Submitted by Emma Grump on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 8:36pm.
The unmitigated gall of these ingrates - demanding to be paid for the honor of being allowed to post on the exalted Arianna's website. They should just be thankful that she permits them a forum to spew their bile at all, and now they expect remuneration? What is the world coming to, when even left-wing liberal loons want the same thing as their conservative foes, after hiding their true feelings for so long. Next thing you know, they'll demand union representation with a generous salary and pension plan.
Oh, the angst.....
I love it when libtards start
Submitted by mostlymoderate on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 8:52pm.
I love it when libtards start fights with one another. Makes me very happy.
The Waltons
Submitted by Gothampc on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 9:35pm.
"Ms. Huffington is acting like every Robber Baron CEO—from Lloyd Blankfein to the Waltons—who believes that they, and only they, should pocket huge riches, while the rest of the peons struggle to survive."
You mean John Boy and Mary Ellen were only pretending to be poor to identify with their friends? I always knew that Grandma could pinch a penny until it screamed. And Livvy always seemed a bit too gussied up when she went to church. I guess Walton's Mountain was where John Galt lived.
He Doesn't Stand A Chance, But That's Not His Goal
Submitted by Tenebrous on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 10:22pm.
Arianna won't be touched by this. Neither will AOL. But what this guy is aiming for is bad press, and he's betting that the execs won't have the stomach for the press circus that this will entail, in addition to the firestorm it will set off on the left.
It's a game of chicken, but no matter who blinks first, everyone involved loses. If Arianna capitulates, then she'll be forever held hostage by the left and their escalating demands. If AOL caves and this guy gets money distributed to the bloggers, then they'll look like they were capitalists, interested only in money.
Visions and Principles blog
My cousin and her friends
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 10:56pm.
My cousin and her friends think like this and we argue about unions and the employers owe the workers something.
Let's use lefty logic to choose sides!
Submitted by Rusty Shackleford on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 12:31am.
Why not? No matter what the outcome is, two wrongs are going to make a right in this situation. Here we go!
On the one hand it's not fair that Zsa-Zsa isn't spreading the wealth, but on the other hand I don't like how greedy this Jonathan fellow sounds. So what side do we choose? As per the norm with our Liberal Thinking Cap, this is an incredibly deep and complicated issue!
Zsa-Zsa might be the capitalist but she has a vagina, and my guess is that Jonathan does not so it would be misogynist and patriarchal to support Jonathan. But Zsa-Zsa is a caucasian... anyone know what race Jonathan is? If Jonathan is of a better race than Zsa-Zsa then it would be racist to support Zsa-Zsa, but if he's just a white guy then it would clearly be sexist not to support Zsa-Zsa...unless of course he is a homosexual. Then it would be homophobic to support Zsa-Zsa... I think... are homosexuals better than straight females? But even if he's just a straight white male then we're back to square one if he's a transgender person who was formerly a female because we can't find out! It's too judgmental for us to question his gender since it would imply that he's not man enough to be a man!
Oh screw it!
My conservative mind can't process the phenomenally complex nuances of the sophisticated collectivist hive mind! Maybe the wealth should just go to the state and that way everyone will be a winner!
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Chris Matthews: The Joy Behar of MSNBC.
Bill Maher: The Joy Behar of HBO.
Paul Krugman: The Joy Behar of The New York Times.