• Poynter, Thursday, April 7, 2011 5:16 PM

Does freelancer mean somebody who works for free? That was one of the quips we read yesterday in all the reportage on the AOL editor in charge of Moviefone, who asked freelance writers she was firing "to contribute as part of our non-paid blogger system... because we value all of your voices and input." in a memo that was posted throughout the Web. Today, news comes that the firee has become the fired.

The newest incarnation of the whole "work for free" boondoggle comes from the the renowned alt-weekly Village Voice known previously for its left-wing, support-the-downtrodden voice (but whose edit has been substandard for a while, we think). The Voice just based a whole issue around the sad state of the comics industry, but asked for free work from those same poor cartoonist contributors -- a situation that is "so ironic it would make a funny cartoon," as Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker says in a piece by Poynter's Jim Romenesko.

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