Freelance writer Jonathan Tasini is suing Arianna Huffington. We’ve discussed how well she’s taking it.

Tasini wrote on his blog this morning:

There is little doubt that unjust enrichment has taken place. In society, our law tries to reflect our moral values, and vice versa. The thousands of bloggers created the value of the Huffington Post. Arianna Huffington created a tiny piece of that value—but she has declared that she, and only she, should benefit from the value of the sale to AOL.

I have no idea whether we will win the legal case. Judges do what they will do. It is a novel argument—as was the legal argument at the heart of the case I brought against The New York Times in 1993, which we won in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001 (and, full disclosure, yes, Scalia, Thomas and Rehnquist also voted in our favor in the 7-2 decision—a fact I will have to live with). At the time, many pundits or “observers” opined that we had no chance. So, I suggest we all take the opinions of various people with a healthy dose of skepticism, or, at least, a “wait and see” attitude.

Wait – what?! His case against the New York Times went to the Supreme Court?! And he won?! Wow – we can’t even IMAGINE 7-2 decisions anymore…

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What is that bad taste in our mouths? Maybe it’s Arianna Huffington‘s post “above the fold” on the front page of Huffington Post cataloging all the people who agree with her and not with the lowly free-blogger suing her for non-payment.

She writes:

The lawsuit filed Tuesday by Jonathan Tasini is so utterly without merit, and has been so thoroughly eviscerated in the media — including being ridiculed as the “dumbest lawsuit ever”…

Yeah, remember back when Arianna was the voice of the downtrodden? You know when Pigs at the Trough didn’t sound like it could be an autobiography? You know, like December?

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As you’ve no doubt heard by now, a class-action lawsuit was filed yesterday by Jonathan Tasini on behalf of unpaid Huffington Post bloggers, contending Arianna and her website are guilty of “unjust enrichment and deceptive business practices.”

The blogosphere hasn’t exactly come out in support of the lawsuit. Dylan Stableford of TheWrap.com says it makes no sense. Jeff Bercovici of Forbes blog Mixed Media calls the suit “a legal long shot.” And Simon Owens of Bloggasm points out that suing HuffPo sets a dangerous legal precedent:

If these writers were to succeed in their class-action lawsuit, then it would open the doors to further lawsuits to Facebook, Twitter, Livejournal, Daily Kos, and virtually every other technology platform for which people contribute content. Should Google start handing out checks to everyone who writes on its Blogspot accounts?

Author and freelance journalist Jonathan Tasini (pictured) has a way with words. Take, for example, the titles of his four books:

- It’s Not Raining, We’re Getting Peed On;
- The Audacity of Greed;
- The Edifice Complex;
- They Get Cake, We Eat Crumbs.

Any one of those could apply to the $105 million class action lawsuit filed today by Tasini against The Huffington Post, AOL, Arianna Huffington, and Jonathan Lerer on behalf of the thousands of unpaid bloggers who helped create some of HuffPo’s vaunted acquisition value. But Tasini instead draws a different, equally provocative comparison in his accompanying press release:

“Arianna Huffington is pursuing the Wal-Martization of creative content… Actually, that is unfair to Wal-Mart because at least Wal-Mart pays its workers something for the value those workers create.”

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Ray Bradbury pickets FOX.

In an amusing twist on the WGA strike theme, Craig Mazin reports:

WGAE Executive Director Mona Mangan has somehow managed to enrage her own employees so much…they’re now threatening to go on strike

This is the woman who has had CBS newswriters working without a contract for years now.

John Ridley goes fi-core, and someone notices. Since the WGA doesn’t have the most diverse membership possible, you’d think they might have tried a little harder to make the guy feel wanted.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert might have some ‘splaining to do. (A catch-phrase for which no writer received any residuals, let it be noted.)

Jonathan Tasini calls for the heads of academics who crossed the picket line to show up on The Daily Show. He’s still waiting for his call.

The strike could result in a big pay day for Canadian content providers. Re-run of Entourage or Curling ?

The Pencils2MediaMoguls delivery is set to go. Of course, moguls being cheap SOBs, they’ll probably hand these out as Christmas bonuses.

Jonathan Tasini posts about the sweatshop that is reality TV. Unfortunately, he lumps the good, the bad and the laugh-out-loud dreadful all together. There’s a number of DGA shows in the reality world–and the WGA muffed their attempt at organizing at ANTM.

Send Daddy back to work–a child’s plea.