When The Center Is Left of the Left

Last week was a milestone in journalism, as the Huffington Post exceeded the New York Times in Web traffic and cemented its role as a main rival to the Gray Lady. It was also noted that the combined AOL-Huffington Post newsroom staff of 1,300 people is now bigger than the Times' 1,200 person newsroom staff. While much of the debate about the rivalry has focused on Huffington Post’s adoption of savvy Internet tactics versus the much more old-school New York Times, very little of the discussion has focused on where the two newsroom differ the most: their labor practices.

The Times' newsroom staff is entirely unionized, while the AOL-Huffington Post staff is entirely nonunionized. Also unlike the Times, which insists on paying every professional writer (even op-ed contributors), the Huffington Post has relied on a network of over 8,000 unpaid bloggers to establish itself and drive traffic to its site. In a Forbes magazine article, AOL executives were quoted as saying that AOL CEO Tim Armstrong “talked a lot about the importance of recruiting hordes of free bloggers…. “It was always, ‘Arianna does it. That’s what she’s built her business on. Why don’t we do it, too?’” says a former AOL editor-in-chief.”

Labor leaders claim that with 11,000 journalists having lost their jobs due to newsrooms cutbacks in the last three years, AOL-Huffington Post has risen to its stature by exploiting journalists desperate to establish names for themselves as writers, and thus willing to work for free in the hopes that they may someday find paid work. They say that the fact the Huffington Post doesn't pay its writers is an unfair business advantage that is sure to lower the standards of journalists.
~ from Labor-Funded Progressive Leaders Cross Huffington Post Picket Line by Mike Elk ~

I don't write for a paycheck; I just write for the enjoyment of it. However, as a holder of a BA in Journalism, I certainly side with those writers who want to be paid a fair wage for their work. So, I find it more than ironic that a supposedly liberal media outlet like the Huffington Post appears to be anti-union while the more centrist New York Times is not.

This situation doesn't truly surprise me, though. There are lots of supposedly progressive organizations that are very liberal...except when it comes to their own employees (or, in this case, a lot of people who should be treated as employees or independent contractors)!! In this one sphere, they behave as conservative as Wall Street!

Back when I lived in Oregon, the very hip and progressive Powell's Bookstore fought its own workers as they sought union representation. They tried to pull out all the shenanigans that you would expect from a greedy multi-national corporation. Fortunately, the public came to the defense of the workers and Powell's saw the light, but me thinks the light bulb only popped on when Powell's management realized their actions were hurting the bottom line.

I have rarely feature articles from the Huffington Post in the past (partially due to this issue) and, from this point forward, I will honor the virtual picket line completely.