Huffington Post rebuffs union boycott call

[The Northerner]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Huffington Post rebuffed a union boycott call over its practice of using unpaid bloggers, saying most of them are "thrilled to contribute" despite not being paid.

The Newspaper Guild, a union of US media workers with 26,000 members, urged contributors to The Huffington Post earlier this week to stop providing free content to the news and opinion website.

"Just as we would ask writers to stand fast and not cross a physical picket line, we ask that they honor this electronic picket line," the guild said in a statement.

"We feel it is unethical to expect trained and qualified professionals to contribute quality content for nothing," the guild said. "Working for free does not benefit workers and undermines quality journalism."

The guild urged founder, Arianna Huffington, who sold The Huffington Post to Web company AOL this month for $315 million, "to demonstrate her commitment to the working class she so ardently champions" by paying bloggers.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110319/tc_afp/usitmediaindustryhuffingtonpostaol

[Brickbat]

1. It blows me away that anyone would work for free, particularly writers.

There's no such thing as "working for exposure" anymore. So very sad.

I say this as a member of the National Writers Union, UAW 1981.

[ananda]

2. Boycott.

nt

[Bonhomme Richard]

3. It's no different to me if I ran a manufacturing business and

had people come in, make the product that I sell and give them nothing but the hope that they might be paid someday. If Huffimngton made zero money then i would understand but to ask people to do stuff for free and then take it all to the bank is nothing more than typical republican behavior. She is a republican .....right?

[Starry Messenger]

4. k&r

[Riley18]

5. I will not read Huffington anymore. Arianna has lost all credibility.

[howaboutme]

6. This represents the new psyche of America

Those with nothing think that by groveling and donating and volunteering and interning for those with everything, that they will too become rich and famous have it all.

We see this absurd belief with those who sacrifice to work for Hollywood, politicians, CEOs and Wall Street.

Working is about ethics, producing and earning money and not about giving away you intellectual property. Corporations don't do it and why should Americans?

[Demit]

7. Nothing new about it.

It's not about thinking you will become rich and famous. It's about eating and paying your rent. You must be very young. Or not a person trying to make your way in a creative field.

The colleges train you to be creative, and to want to be creative, and they assure you that if you are very good you will succeed. Then they spit you out to be exploited. Twas ever thus.

[JDPriestly]

10. Unpaid internships should be outlawed in my opinion.

[Bjorn Against]

8. I have lost a lot of respect for Arianna Huffington

I understand that a lot of bloggers don't get paid, but that is only because many blogs don't make money. When Arianna pulls in over $300 million she should have an obligation to pay those who made that money for her, the fact that she doesn't proves that she is only in this for herself and could care less about basic fairness.

[Marblehead]

9. ain't capitalism great

[IowaRevolutionary]

11. Fuck Arianna Huffington

She is as far right as she has ever been.

[JoeyT]

12. I don't know how far to the right she was before.

But she's certainly as selfish as she ever was, which amounts to the same thing.

[eShirl]

13. 1996 newspaper article: "conservative guru Arianna Huffington"

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1996-06-18/news/9606170699_1_farrow-huffington-franken

Franken And Huffington Make Strange Bedfellows
NAMES & FACES
June 18, 1996

Liberal comedian Al Franken and conservative guru Arianna Huffington are on opposite sides of the political fence, but they're under the same sheets. Franken and Huffington appeared in bed together for a publicity photo for ''Strange Bedfellows,'' the duo's planned spots from the Republican and Democratic national conventions for the Comedy Central cable network. ''This was Al's idea, of course,'' Huffington said in the June 24 issue of Time magazine. Longtime Saturday Night Live cast member Franken said he was looking forward to offending ''a few Republican delegates who don't have a sense of humor.''

[howaboutme]

14. Unfettered greed versus a sense of fairness

is a distinguishing characteristic of the rich that divides the scum from those of some righteousness.

So many of the rich have the incorrect opinion that they themselves are the reason for their success.

Most of them are rich mostly because of luck.....having good health, being born into enough money to get them into an Ivy League University with accompanying connections, having family with connections (parent lottery), being born in the USA. I differentiate riches and wealth from those of means.

For those who want a real test of metal and ability to become successful totally on their own, then move to Somalia with only minimal pocket change.

[CrispyQ]

15. You're just another Pig at the Trough, aren't you Arianna.

:puke: