Is the Huffington Post Important to the Left?

[babylonsister]

Is the Huffington Post Important to the Left?

by BooMan
Tue Nov 16th, 2010 at 09:10:58 AM EST

snip//

Is the Huffington Post the "left's most important media property"? Really? Because I have never opened the Huffington Post unless directed there by someone else. I have almost never linked to them (probably less than a dozen times in six years). I don't think I've ever been to their home-page. I think if they were really so important, I'd find I couldn't blog effectively without knowing what was going on there. But, for the most part, the Huffington Post doesn't even exist for me. It's like the Drudge Report. I know it exists, and occasionally someone points out to me that they have some interesting material, but that's it. And why is the Huffington Post considered a left-leaning site? I don't consider Arianna Huffington to be left-leaning. She's a critic of President Bush and the current brand of know-nothing politics of the right. But she's certainly no liberal. Above all, she's a business woman and a celebrity. She's not a part of any movement I am aware of. I'm not knocking her, but I just don't get why her site is supposed to be important to the left. For what?


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politico 'twist'... they defend Arianna to the nth degree; hmmmm.

2 Dems claim Arianna Huffington stole website idea

By BEN SMITH | 11/15/10 7:02 PM EST Updated: 11/16/10 5:26 PM EST


Two Democratic consultants are accusing Arianna Huffington and her business partner of stealing their idea for the powerhouse liberal website Huffington Post.

Peter Daou and James Boyce charge that Huffington and partner Ken Lerer designed the website from a plan they had presented them, and in doing so, violated a handshake agreement to work together, according to a lawsuit to be filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The complaint is a direct challenge to the left’s most important media property :eyes: from two stalwarts of the progressive movement. And it challenges Huffington’s own oft-told story of coming up with the idea in conversation with Lerer and other friends.

“Huffington has styled herself as a ‘new media’ maven and an expert on the effective deployment of news and celebrity on the Internet in the service of political ends,” says the complaint. “As will be shown at trial, Huffington’s and Lerer’s image with respect to the Huffington Post is founded on false impressions and inaccuracies: They presented the ‘new media’ ideas and plans of Peter Daou and James Boyce as their own in order to raise money for the website and enhance their image, and breached their promises to work with Peter and James to develop the site together.”

The suit against Huffington, Lerer, and Huffington Post also sheds light on the very political aims of the left’s most powerful – and valuable – online voice. :eyes:

more...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45168.html#ixzz15SDQM4xM

[DrToast]

1. Oh god....stolen websites? I can't handle a Huffington Post movie.*

*

[babylonsister]

3. Haha! It's coming, you know it is! nt

[DrToast]

13. If Blake Lively plays Arianna, I might see it.

I know they're not the same age, but I don't care!

[bigwillq]

2. Not to me.

I rarely visit that site.

[jonnyblitz]

6. I go there via link from DU thread.nt

[SteveM]

4. "Left's most important media property?" Begs so many questions. nt

[jonnyblitz]

5. Good Luck to PeteNYC!nt

[moondust]

7. Maybe to the "high profile" left.

There's not much serious discussion and there are lots of trolls but it is a high-profile place where the famous and the wannabe famous can publish articles and get attention.

Oh yeah, it's not all "left" either. Ron Christie, for example, had a piece there just in the last couple days.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. The importance of the website is inflated because it is the only

well branded left leaning politican site, and the only one with a media face to go with the brand. So in the view of the media, it seems very important, because it gets on TV, which happens because Arriana was already on TV, which is how she wound up with a website, and that is called synergy, and the rest of the web is lacking in that department, for better or worse. They put that Politico guy on TV, but he looks like he ate Luke Russert, and he's barely workable....so even the right websites don't have the full media thing going like Ms H does.

[impik]

9. It's important to the RW, as lady Ariana obviously doing all she can to destroy Obama

[Umbral]

10. Of course HuffPo isn't the most importaint...

It comes in second behind Common Dreams.

CD FTWB!!!!

[bigwillq]

14. Hey

Congrats on 800 posts! :toast:

[Dr Fate]

11. I can honestly say that I've never been to their home page before.

I am fairly sure that I must have read articles that originated there, but it was probably here at DU.

They are not really on my radar, at least not directly...

[gkhouston]

12. Is HuffPo important to me? Only when The Onion's website is down.... n/t

[bemildred]

15. No. nt

[valerief]

16. Puff Ho? I go there mainly for escapism (the puff from the ho), not news. nt

[Milo_Bloom]

17. Yeah, pretty accurate based on the stats.

over 12 million unique visitors last month

drudge report 3 million
democratic underground 1 million
dailykos.com 880K


So you could say that those don't compare and you should probably compare traffic to a more comprehensive site.


foxnews.com 10 million


When your property draws more traffic than any other liberal website AND outpreforms the lynchpin of the competition.. yeah, you are probably the most powerful and valuable resource.

[frylock]

18. why bring facts and stats to the table when it's oh so much easier to hate on arianna?

i mean, one poster claimed arianna's sole purpose is to destroy obama. you just can't argue with logic like that.

[KoKo]

19. SADLY..their Model to Be Fiscally Sound is to use PORN and WOMEN so that they can do POLITICAL DEPTH

Damned site is a conundrum. If you want to read good Lib/Left Writers you HAVE TO GO THERE...but when you GO THERE...you get FLASHING TITS, Links to PORN ABOUT "TIGER" and every other CELEBRITY you can see on the GROCERY STORE CHECK OUT!

THE SITE IS A MESS! It perverts real LEFT THOUGHT into "TEENY TYPE" on the Left of the MAST HEAD and Flashes and GIMMICKS everything it can to promote WOMEN AS PORN IDOLS FOR MEN.

That Ariana Huffington CAN PROMOTE HER SITE ...while she "PRETENDS" to be for "WOMEN'S VALUES AND FREEDOM" while she PROMOTES SOFT PORN...(and if you link to here "T&A" you will end up with HARD PORN...
is just BEYOND MY BELIEF IN HER AS A VOICE FOR THE LEFT or FOR WOMEN!

Her Blog is getting more and more into the GUTTER! She's "People Magazine" crossed over with the "National Enquirer" or maybe the old "Penthouse Magazine."

If that's what she had to do to get VIEWERS to her "supposed Political Web Site" then GOOD FOR HER...but she is TRASHING THE LEFT and her WRITERS when she SUBJECTS them into a SMALL TYPE READING on the "FAR LEFT" of her "Viewing Blog Model."

And....look at how she hired the BEST IN THE BUSINESS..DAN FROOMKIN from WAPO BLOG (a Fave for TRUTH for Progressives during Bush Years)to her Site to HEAD UP DC BUREAU and DAN was COVERED OVER with the New Emphasis to Celebrity/Soft Porn/Fashion/ and Oprah Drivil!

It was hard to take for viewers and supporters of Huffington Post to deal with the Site we thought would be the COUNTER to "POLITICO" and "DRUDGE"...FAUX and the REST... WOULD CAVE LIKE THIS TO COMMERCIALISM!

[Phx_Dem]

20. Hell no. It's importantly only in Arianna's mind. n/t

[JNelson6563]

21. No, simply the website of an attention whore

And perhaps the envy of many other attention whores.

Julie