why the *hell* is Michael Musto talking to Huffington Post?

Unless you’re in deep with NYC media, you may not know who Michael Musto is. He’s been writing a bitchy gabfest of a gossip colum in The Village Voice for the past 30 years. I’m not a fan, but clearly plenty of folks love him, and there’s no question that he’s a New York institution. He’s basically been blogging since long before anyone had ever heard the word blog.

And the Voice just laid him off. Because money. The Voice is now hiring writers for salaries not specified. Which means “as cheap as we can get ’em.”

And then I read this today:

Michael Musto, who was laid off from the Village Voice last week, tells HuffPost Live

And it doesn’t matter what Musto said. What matters is that he said to Huffington Post, the piece-of-shit scumbag site that bears a huge part of the blame for devaluing the work of writers — by, for instance, not paying writers yet somehow managing to convince writers that it’s in their best interests to give their work away.

It’s precisely because of sites like HuffPOS that content has been devalued and writers like Musto find themselves considered expendable. So what in the actual fuck is Musto doing supporting them by speaking via them?

I’m no fan of Musto’s, so I’m not taking umbrage on his behalf. I’m taking umbrage on behalf all the writers who know how damaging HuffPOS is and don’t want to see it get any support from writers.

Musto should know better.

Read more about Musto and HuffPOS at the site of media blogger Jim Romenesko, who is one of the good guys.