Friday, April 1, 2011

Last Call

Good night folks, and the last progressive out of HuffPo, please turn out the lights.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Arianna Huffington revealed a bit of news that's not likely to show up on The Huffington Post's front page any time soon: the site is no longer "lefty" in its political bent.

That will likely come as a surprise to the massive audience of Democrats and liberals The Huffington Post has attracted over the years, who've turned the site into a powerful voice for progressive values and one of the largest online publications going.

Speaking to New York Times reporter Andrew Goldman, Huffington said that for the last three years she has been walking the post-partisan talk.

"The tag line that we’ve used a lot is 'Beyond left and right,'" she reportedly said.

The Times' writer fired back, suggesting that she was "trying to tell me that Smurfs aren’t blue" by claiming that The Huffington Post was not founded as a "lefty" publication.

"I’m just telling you that it is very clear that we have progressive views, but to call everything we’re doing lefty — it misses the whole point that American policy needs to be redefined beyond left and right," she reportedly said. "It’s a completely obsolete view of politics."

"Still, I’m amazed you’re trying to tell me that The Huffington Post wasn’t started as a lefty blog?" Goldman asked.

"I’m not trying to tell you anything," she reportedly replied. "I’m telling you things. I’m not trying, O.K.?"

Who, us?  Progressive?   Surely you have us confused with another large corporate news aggregation and commentary site.  Why anyone would think HuffPo would go Sensible Centrist, "post-partisan" Third Way on the Dirty F'ckin Hippies after the AOL buyout, just because they hired Andrew Breitbart, just because they picked up anti-Obama Reasonoids like Radley Balko...why I have no idea where anyone would get that kind of notion from.

Money talks, bullshit walks.  If it wasn't for Amanda Terkel, I'd drop HuffPo from the blogroll completely.  As it is, I'll simply change the link to her author page.

You dance with who brought you, Arianna.

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