Huffington Post..Supposed to be the NEW DEM MEDIA...dies on PORN!

[KoKo]

I'm sorry...if you like porn you've found your new site. Whether it's "Soft Porn" or "Hard Porn" (just follow the links from the Kinky Pics and Views" linked on "Huffington Post" and you will have your fill.

Anyone here remember the WaPo Columnist Dan Froomkin and his wonderful commentary daily on the breaking news stories that kept many of us here on DU on the LEFT going after Bush/Cheney STOLE THE ELECTION in 2001?

HUFF POST hired FROOMKIN after the WAPO FIRED HIM when OBAMA WON and they said he would be the HEAD of a NEW NEWS BUREAU in DC...Investigative they CLAIMED.

Dan had been put on the Back Burner...and when he posts it's not featured. For all intents and purposes his BIG VOICE is DEAD!

Arianna was going to CREATE A SITE THAT WOULD HAVE REPORTERS INVESTIGATIG WALL ST. SKULLDUGGERY!

So far HUFF POST put out a couple of articles that were hardly Ground Breaking and were mostly Milquetoast!

HUFFINGTON POST now has it's "For Free...NO PAy" Bloggers in the most tinyest of print...way over on the Left Column of their Front Page where it takes a Magnifying Glass to read what they are saying about Lefty Politics of the day. A recent Robert Reich Article on Huff Post had me scramble through my drawer of "Readers" to find the Highest Power of Eye Glasses...which is beyond what my Opthamologist last prescribed for me ! (I bought the High Power by Mistake at TJ MAXX in a TWO FER Promotion!)

WHY IS HUFF POST DOING THIS? ANYONE HAVE ANY THOUGHTS?

[SoCalDem]

1. Don;t know.. I never go there.. It bugs my browser & takes forever to load

and I have a brand new computer..same with Daily Kos.. I assume it's because of my blocking firewalls & all their damned ads...

[KoKo]

3. Ahh So Cal...so good to read you here.........

What a Trip it's Been......!

[hlthe2b]

2. Arianna is in it first and foremost for herself... to build the premiere

website that blasts all the others away. To do that she needs lots of advertising and related financial support. To get that, she believes she had to bring the TMZ type crap to the site--sex and scandal does sell, after all.

Having the premiere site that is making $$$ and thus has influence, gives HER influence. She keeps getting invited back for tv spots and voila, Arianna is a happy lady. Does she actually care about progressive politics? Yes, on some level, I think she does. But she sells out one hell of a lot of her soul to get the rest...

My thoughts. Your mileage may vary.

[DFLforever]

4. Follow the money, KoKo .It's in entertainment - not news.

I stopped visiting Huff&Puff Post during the summer of 2008.

[KoKo]

9. But, they started out as something Worthwhile to Counter the Left!

Why wasn't there enough there that they had to resort to "Celebrity Porn" when Politco doesn't have to do that! Arianna certainly had enough money and backing to start it and enough "free voices" who would give her an edge.

What does it mean? Should we believe that there's just NO MONEY in DEM OR LEFTY NEWS (just like Air America's Demise?) Or, are we being fooled.

But, if there's not enough interest and all goes to Palin, Beck and Faux News then what is the POINT?

How can this BE after those Years of Bush/Cheney/Rummy and the Think Tanks and Wall St. who RAPED AMERICAN FAMILIES...the AVERAGE AMERICANS...like You and ME and made so many POOR, HOMELESS or WORRYING ABOUT BECOMING BOTH?

HOW CAN THIS BE????

[hlthe2b]

13. Politico is influential, I suppose for the beltway types and political

addicts, but I have to think their readership is dwarfed by HUFFPO... I think she wants the readership (and the bragging rights that go along with that) and thinks she has to resort to all this tripe to get it.

what does it mean? I think it only underscores the corrupting effect of corporatist capitalism, even on the internet media. Sadly the days of the non-commercial (grass roots) internet media having so much influence are likely dwindling.

[KoKo]

5. I do believe Arianna had some kind of Epiphany in her core..when she went Left....BUT...

I'm wondering about her Health...when she started posting so much about her inablility to sleep at night and doing so many posts about it.

Then that "Morning with Joe" thing on MSNBC started to have some guy who was supposed to be her "Co-Investor" at Huff Post with her started to appear and he looked like a JOKER type..who was always talking about "Gaming Sites" and "STUFF" on their with Mika and Joe ...and I'm sorry to say he reminded me of Rahm Emmanuel.

I'm wondering if Arianna gave it up to that guy as the BIG INVESTOR and the guy is a Jerk...or a Troll from the Right who is more interested in Celebrity Porn than he is in REAL NEWS that Arianna was saying the site was to be about. :shrug:

When "HUFF POST" went ONLINE for the first time I had hope it would be a counter to the "POLITICO" website funded by the Bushie Contributors who were just continuing the RW THING! At first HUFF POST was GREAT! Lots of Free Posts by folks on the left that were great reads...but then it became more and more focused on CELEBRITY PORN...and then even more PORN.

It's a sad thing to see........from someone who had so much hope for a great place for us Dems to finally have a VOICE in the MSM WILDERNESS@

BUT...it all changed and I think we Dems need to be concerned as to WHY WE DON'T HAVE a COUNTER to POLITICO and the OTHER RW MEDIA SITES that aren't even CRAZY!

Why is this???? :shrug:

[hlthe2b]

8. Could be... I haven't paid attention to her "investing partner..."

but it isn't just the celebrity porn.. These alternative medicine stories frequently are way way out there--particularly when they feature Dr. Mercola :eyes: I figured her sleep problems were just the post-menopausal crap that many women her age experience, but you could be right about it being more significant.

It is a real shame though about Froomkin--one of my all time favorites.

[KoKo]

12. Good Point...Her site is filled with all kinds of "Alternative Medical Remedies"

and going beyond that there are links to Medical Sites that offer terrible information for sick people looking for help.

I'm a supporter of alterntive medical therapies to an "extent" but her site promotes stuff that in many instances is not verified, not supported by real clinical trials and sometimes is just "off the wall" making the stuff look like "Traveling Medicine Shows" from the early founding of America where one could mix together some herbs and spices and take the "covered wagon" on the "road" and SELL, SELL, SELL as long as you had a good Spiel about how the Concoction would CURE YOUR ILLS...make you FATTER or THINNER, and cure GOUT, CANCERS of ALL KINDS, KIDNEY FAILURE and Help your DIGESTION and CURE ToeNail FUNGUS!

It's gotten OTT...there for SURE!

[KonaKane]

6. HuffPo is crap. Don't go there.

And yes, something is buggy about it because it takes forever to load, slows down or crashers my browser almost every time I used to visit it.

Arriana can go blog about her sagging ass, I don't care.

[KoKo]

15. There are some very good dedicated Dems who post there..but the print has gotten so tiny

and the emphasis on reading the post is so outweighted by the "Celeb Porn" that one can hardly get through it all.

It doesn't crash my browser like some here have reported...but it offends my eyes with the CLUTTER to read the latest posts from Krugman, Reich or the many other voices who have been fired from Print Media because no one reads magazines or newspapers anymore. It was supposed to be site for Democrats or Left when it was founded...but it's devolved into something so crass and difficult...it caused me to question what THE HELL is going ON out there for Dem or Left Sites!

Even my Indie Newspaper here where I live which has great articles as alternative to my dying Newspaper (yeah, I still subscribe) won't touch has to rely on "Doll House/Naughty Underware" Ads to survive to give us our REAL news about what our State Legislature is up to and does a good but limited Investigative Reporting. But, it's not something I's want my kids to be reading...and that's very bad for the future of our kids. I know they can get stuff from "Twitter" and friends who are political who post on "My Space," ...but there still needs to be some arbitration...(IF It's HONEST) by real reporters with some creds who aren't just like the rest of us "mouthing off" with our own agenda.

I don't know how we deal with this...for our kids...grandkids...all of us.

[Uzybone]

7. WHY IS HUFF POST DOING THIS?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Arianna is about the money. Nothing else.

[MineralMan]

19. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner.

Anyone who thinks that Ariana Huffington is a true progressive should go to the Wikipedia site about her. Everything in that site is absolutely true, including this little tidbit:

"Prior to The Huffington Post, Huffington hosted a website called Ariannaonline.com. Her first foray into the Internet was a website called Resignation.com, which called for the resignation of President Bill Clinton and was a rallying place for conservatives opposing Clinton."

I was famiiar with her in California. I do not trust Ariana Huffington for one single second. She changes her politics as it suits her and as benefits her. It is all about Ariana Huffington, and nothing else.

How so many people can be taken in by this person, I will never understand.

[MineralMan]

10. Ariana's lifestyle is very expensive.

That is all.

[KoKo]

16. Might be so...but I've always fel there is much more there to her than "Celeb."

Of course I many be innocent to some evil side of her.

[MineralMan]

18. I didn't say evil. I said that she runs her site to support her

lifestyle. All the bizarre pages of unsubstantiated bloggish crap are just designed to generate revenue for her. There's so much abject bullshit on her site, that I stopped going there a long time ago. She seems to have no standards.

As for her politics, I remember her when she was a Republican, married to a rather scummy legislator. She generates no respect from me at all.

Here's a little segment from the Wikipedia entry on her:

"Prior to The Huffington Post, Huffington hosted a website called Ariannaonline.com. Her first foray into the Internet was a website called Resignation.com, which called for the resignation of President Bill Clinton and was a rallying place for conservatives opposing Clinton."

She blows with the wind, and has always done so. She used to be an arch-conservative. Now she's a progressive. I don't believe either one. She is, quite simply, Ariana Huffington. Nothing else matters.

[branders seine]

11. What's with ALL the capital LETTERS?

And who CARES ABOUT PORN anyway?

Better porn than DLC FILTH!

[KoKo]

14. It's for EMPHASIS...believe me...I'm not shouting at you......just want you to read..

:-(

[branders seine]

17. Just teasing.

I'm exhausted. Punchy. Wobbly. Must sleep.

Sometime.

:-)

:hi:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

20. I'm just guessing, but I'd say money?

Or the lust for it. In my experience it's usually what causes such things.