The True/Slant "Abuses Writers" Scandal!

Over the weekend a bunch of people hopped on to publicizing Oregon-based science writer (apparently not the proprietor of Very Media of the same name) David Appell’s claim that “True/Slant abuses writers.” (True/Slant is a centralized web-based writer-place, that engages writers for fairly low fees and sells advertising.) Appell signed up in November, for a fee of $200 a month-but was accidentally only paid $150 for December. He wrote the CEO-who did not respond to him! When other people in the company were alerted, they cut him a check for the remaining $50. But! AND THEN! They terminated their contract with him! “They’re a pretty slimy organization,” concluded Appell. Whyever (that’s not a word) would they have done such a thing?

We reached out to True/Slant’s executive director, Coates Bateman, with the following urgent, reportorial questions regarding this scandal.

Why, we asked, “did you fire that poor oppressed writer from his contract?” And also: “WHY DID YOU [okay, temporarily and accidentally] STEAL FIFTY DOLLARS FROM THAT POOR, NICE WRITER FELLOW?”

Bateman responded: “I regret the error I made regarding Mr. Appell’s December pay. I feel we did our best to remedy in a timely fashion.”

He added: “I don’t regret the decision of ending our business relationship.”