Tea party activist and Emmis-owned KFTK-FM St. Louis Conservative talker Dana Loesch sued the owner of the conservative website Breitbart.com 12/21, claiming that although her relationship with the news and opinion aggregating website had gone “tragically awry,” Breibart.cοm refused to let her work for the company or anyone else, forcing her into “indentured servitude in limbo,” reports The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Loesch has appeared on CNN, Glenn Beck properties and Bill Maher. Breitbart, LLC hired Dana as the editor for its BigJournalism sub-site, and the suit says “it was supposed to be a relationship of mutual trust, benefit and success.” But the suit says that difficulties managing the Breitbart “media ’empire’” or ideological conflicts or both had spiked the working relationship, creating a “increasingly hostile” work environment. When Loesch tried to terminate her work agreement in September, Breitbart refused and extended the agreement by a year, the suit says.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, seeks at least $75,000 in damages, as well as a judge’s declaration that her contract had expired. Breitbart.cοm LLC refuses to allow her work to be published and “sabotages” her attempts to find work elsewhere, the suit says.
See the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story here
RBR-TVBR observation: Two things: One, Breitbart founder Andrew Breitbart passed away from heart failure suddenly last March. He may have been the one who signed the contract with Loesch and it would explain why there are “difficulties” at the company. Second, she has not posted a story since mid-September, so someone over there is likely silencing her over whatever conflicts have arisen. It’s complicated, because if she’s receiving a check every two weeks, then she may still be contractually bound. But if she’s not doing what she was contracted to do (editor of the sub-site), she may have grounds for nixing the contract. It’s really all about the fine print here, or the specific language of the contract.
