Huffington Post sued by contributors to Huffington Post

By Melissa Bell



Arianna Huffington (Joe Corrigan/Getty Image)

Two Democratic consultants have challenged the leading liberal online news site in a court filing that claims the Huffington Post's two founders, Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer, stole the idea for the site.

Huffington and Lerer excluded Peter Daou and James Boyce "from the venture, and claimed credit for the ideas and contributions to the site," the New York Supreme Court documents state.

Politico first reported the suit, which Huffington called "a completely absurd, ludicrous supposition" in a written statement. Huffington said the men tried to work for the brand, but she had decided not to hire them.

Daou and Boyce allege that they came up with an idea for a Web site that would give a liberal conterweight to conservative sites such as the Drudge report. Huffington and Lerer say the site arose from a number of conversations with different people in the wake of the 2004 presidential election.

The two political consultants say they could not file suit earlier than now because a public dispute would have destroyed their livelihood. Daou was an advisor to Hillary Clinton. The case also states that the they "could not believe that Huffington and Lerer would so brazenly exclude them and take their ideas and plans."

Daou and Boyce have written for the Huffington Post as recently as October 7. Boyce's biography on the site reads, "A frequent on-air guest on MSNBC, James has been involved in the Huffington Post since the very first meeting in Arianna's living room."

In 2008, the New York Times estimated the purchase price of the Huffington Post at $200 million.