A pair of Democratic strategists filed a lawsuit on Monday claiming that Huffington Post founders Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer stole their idea for the site.
In the suit filed in New York Supreme Court late Monday, Peter Daou and James Boyce -- who served as consultants for John Kerry and Hillary Clinton’s failed 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns, respectively -- allege Huffington and Lerer “entered into a joint venture” with them to develop the liberal site they, in fact, had "conceived.”
According to the suit, Daou and Boyce -- who have blogged for the Huffington Post on numerous occasions -- “believed that Huffington’s ‘personal brand’ and Lerer’s financial resources would perfectly complement their unique formula for a website combining news aggregation, a political celebrity blog collective, and online community-building, which could serve as a liberal counterweight to conservative talk radio and websites like The Drudge Report.” The pair are seeking unspecified damages.
Huffington and Lerer issued a joint statement late Monday dismissing the “bizzarro” suit, calling Daou and Boyce “political operatives who we rejected going into business with or hiring 6 years ago, and who had absolutely nothing to do with creating, running, financing, or building the Huffington Post.”
“First they tried to cash in, demanding we pay them to keep their ludicrous claim quiet,” Huffington and Lerer said. “Of course, we refused. Then they said they'd go away for just a little money. Again, we refused. Now they're saying all they want is a donation to ‘progressive causes.’ How noble.”
On Tuesday, Daou wrote a blog post in response to the joint statement.
Back to the lawsuit:
After weeks of meetings, conversations, and emails among the parties, Huffington and Lerer breached their obligations to Peter and James, excluded them from the venture, and claimed credit for the ideas and contributions to the site that Peter and James had given them. […] The reality of Peter’s and James’ role in the conception and creation of the site has been erased from history, and Peter and James have never been compensated for their participation in the joint venture. This lawsuit has been filed to right those wrongs.
That last bit sounds vaguely like the story behind the origin of Facebook -- on which “The Social Network” movie is based -- with Daou and Boyce playing the role of the Winklevoss twins.
More claims from the suit, which, as far as these things go, are pretty detailed:
In mid-November 2004, James gave the memorandum, which was entitled “1460” to reflect the number of days between presidential elections, to Huffington. Huffington agreed to be substantially involved in the project. In the “1460” memorandum, her designated role was as strategic partner and investor. […] As set forth in the “1460” memorandum that James gave to Huffington, the core objective in creating the Website was to “use the potential of the Internet to the fullest extent possible to continue the momentum started during the [2004 presidential] campaign and re-organize the Democratic Party from the outside in, not the inside out.”
