MTV tacked on a $500 stocking stuffer to the final paychecks of those charity bloggers it was avoiding paying. Could it be the raunchy Viacom network believes in God? Or at least karma?

MTV claims checks are in the mail to the "citizen journalists" it really didn't want to pay, even though it got a big charity grant on their behalf. The network feels just terrible.

An MTV "citizen journalist," Erica Anderson, has gone public to describe "grueling" work conditions on a charity-sponsored project, and to confirm what anonymous coworkers told us Friday: The network isn't paying project staff.

Following our request for information yesterday, we heard from a good number of freelancers who said MTV was stiffing them on paychecks. Including people MTV got charity money to support.

Yesterday we brought you the epic, outraged email chain that ensued when Hip Hop Weekly mistakenly sent an invite for a fancy party it was throwing to a list of freelancers who hadn't been paid for their work. It only took one day for them to propose a class-action lawsuit and a protest march. Energetic! And while…

Hip Hop Weekly is an execrable, half-assed attempt at a hip hop version of Us Weekly. HHW was founded a couple of years ago by Dave Mays and Benzino, the guys who ran The Source into the ground through sheer selfishness before being forced out. Suffice it to say there's no reason to have a sympathetic view of the…

Laurel Touby, the millionaire founder of Mediabistro—which totally exists to give freelancers the false hope of getting media jobs—has been called upon to give a speech about "Best Practices in Freelancing." Except she's forgotten everything about freelancing, because she's a millionaire now! So she needs you…

Have you ever come across somebody who is ostensibly a "Writer/ Editor/ Educator," but doesn't seem to understand how those things work? [Name removed in the spirit of forgiveness] is just such a person! According her website she re-entered "the writing biz" in 2002, and has been keeping busy. She's even going to be…

Ah, Profnet—the easy-peasy electronic service that lets reporters put out requests for even the strangest sources. Then those requests are leaked to us, and we can all have a sympathetic laugh about the endlessly debasing things that freelancers have to go through just to pay the rent. Maybe you can help! Do you…

We throw ourselves at your mercy. Paying taxes is a terrible bother for freelancers, which means us, your Gawker staff. A reader asked us to be servicey and offer our tips. BUT WE HAVE NONE. The only tax tip I ever got was "file quarterly," which I didn't do. But some of you commenters are like economic geniuses and…

Be forwarned, youngsters: the magazine industry has no room for you any more. Also, it can't find you! You're all out there working on the blogs and not learning how to do real journalism. Which makes you suck! "These people don't leave their fucking laptops," says elderly writer Gay Talese. "It used to be, you…

What's this? Members of the Freelancers Union are up in arms over badly-executed changes to their health insurance benefits! Oh, the irony! On November 30, the union, which says it "represents the needs and concerns of America's growing independent workforce," sent a memo out to its 15,000 New York metropolitan-area…

Is anyone confused by all the fuss over freelancer benefits in the Viacom mess? Freelancer, permalancer, part-time employee, full-time employee: What's the difference anymore? Why are Viacom's independent contractors complaining about having their benefits cut when the general impression is that freelancers don't…

So the tussle between the Details freelancer and Ben Affleck gets murkier. Says a spokesperson about the mag's correction, which says the piece quotes Affleck saying things he did not say: "Statements taken out of context.... Nothing fabricated." Well, they can't have it both ways. The New York Observer asks: "Will…

Our Freelancer Action Unit, an elite team of angry reporters, investigates publications that don't pay their freelancers. Got a gripe? Not getting paid? Drop a line!

Our Freelancer Action Unit, an elite team of angry reporters, investigates publications that don't pay their freelancers. Got a gripe? Not getting paid? Drop a line!

Earlier this week, a number of local freelance photojournalists received a curious email from New York Post photo editor David Boyle. It started by saying that the paper pays its freelance photographers "based on experience and equipment." Then Boyle went on to say that the paper was doing an "equipment audit," and…