Susan Bradford Files Suit Against Huffington Post and New York Times for Breach of Contract and Copyright Violations

Friend to Original Pechanga's Blog, Susan Bradford has announced that she has filed suit against the Huffington Post and New York Times.  We have posted many articles from Susan, primarily about Jack Abramoff.   Here are the details

In the case of the Huffington Post, an editor, Nico Pitney, offered Bradford compensation for her articles on Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2008 when Sen. John McCain was the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. After receiving her articles, Bradford was promptly cut from the Huffington Post. Shortly thereafter her work appeared under the byline of another reporter, who was plugging his own book on Abramoff as an "exclusive." That HuffPo blogger claimed that he received his information by "secretly interviewing" Abramoff even though the lobbyist was not authorized to give interviews -- a condition Abramoff established up front with all reporters before he agreed to meet with them.

Of all the reporters who met Abramoff in prison, the HuffPo blogger is the only one who has claimed spontaneous prison confessions from Abramoff. In contrast, Bradford, who met Abramoff frequently in prison, compiled the original story, based upon substantial original paperwork, rigorous research, and interviews with hundreds of sources, none of whom were Abramoff. Bradford was a regular presence at the tribes, as the Natives can confirm, where she methodically pieced together the scandal behind the scandal. A Huffington Post editor even grabbed Bradford's paperwork mid-discussion and ran out of the room to photocopy it, despite her request that he not do so. Bradford is claiming breach of contract.

In a separate case, a New York Times reporter, Jo Becker, somehow acquired Bradford's Huffington Post submission, portions of which she paraphrased in the Times, without having secured the permission or assigned proper attribution to Bradford. Earlier that year, Becker announced that she had heard about Bradford's scoop "from a friend." When Bradford declined to collaborate with Becker, the Times reporter somehow managed to acquire Bradford's story anyway, through sources close to the Huffington Post, and brazenly ran to press with it, in violation of copyright. Essentially Becker adopted Bradford's theme of the rivalry between Scott Reed and Jack Abramoff, while spinning the story to reflect negatively on Abramoff.

Bradford is represented by Jon Moseley, an attorney who successfully challenged CREW's frivolous corruption charges against former Tea Party candidate for Senate, Christine O'Donnell.

Check out Susan's website:  http://susanbradford.org/      Susan's book:  LYNCHED is available there.