Arianna Huffington now the political voice of AOL

[Jerry Biggers]

As per the link here

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41453150?GT1=43001 ,the female personification of Ellsworth Toohey/Balph Eubank/Lillian Rearden, Arianna Huffington, has sold her Fluffington Post website to AOL (now run by a former exec at Google, who they hope will save this rapidly sinking ship - see article).

Hopefully Lillian, I mean Arianna, will have the same "saving" effect on AOL that Jerry Pournelle had at the once-strong/now-defunct Byte magazine and website.

Pournelle (as far Right as Arianna is Left), at least, occasionally said sensible things.

edit: I just added quotes around "saving" because I don't want a mis-interpretation here. Jerry Pournelle's regular column did not save Byte from ultimately closing down. So I am saying that I hope Arianna can do no better at AOL.

Edited February 7, 2011 by Jerry Biggers

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Jerry,

This is not a bad thing.

When AOL sells it off later because it made a bad investment, this will be a huge discrediting image before the average American public.

I don't believe AOL is aware of the current credibility factor in political discourse, so I think it literally does not know what it is getting into.

The stockholders will, though.

Michael

[9thdoctor]

She claims that she was once an Ayn Rand acolyte, then outgrew it. There’s an NPR program she did with Peter Schwartz (of all people), I’m not going to take time to relisten, but my memory of it is that she’s like many pseudo-intellectuals who shamelessly try bluff to cover for their ignorance and/or misrepresentations.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1009982

[william.scherk]

When AOL sells it off later because it made a bad investment, this will be a huge discrediting image before the average American public.

I don't believe AOL is aware of the current credibility factor in political discourse, so I think it literally does not know what it is getting into.

I hate HP -- such a mushy melange of gossip, pseudoscience, touchy moderation, anti-vax nonsense, sloppy reporting and all-round slop. If you want straightforward leftism, there are a number of better, more focussed sites to fret over, starting with Media Matters.

That said, Fluffington currently draws over 25 million viewers a month, and ranks 31 in US traffic. Can it 'save' AOL? Who knows? Ariana is smart enough to pocket 300 million smackers. That will buy her one Pollock and half a Bacon.

[Jerry Biggers]

Whoa! Some HuffPo writers are pissed! Check this out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/the-huffpo-paradox_b_819991.html

The writer expresses some disgust. It seems Arianna got them all to submit their articles for free, no payment to the writer. He says now Arianna makes $315 million on the sale to AOL and he feels that he's been played for a sucker!

The Wikipedia article on Huffington Post mentions that it has come under a good deal of criticism lately from the "skeptics" (Shermer, Kurtz, etc.) community because she has let in some New Ager-types who promote mysticism, pseudoscience nonsense..

I saw Arianna on some TV program several years ago in which an Objectivist spokesman (I think from ARI) was her opposite. Sorry, don't remember much more. Only that Arianna responded with ridicule and a "strawman" argument, rather than respond to the Objectivist's statements. It was a brief confrontation and certainly not a clash of philosophies, but it did show how Arianna argues.

Edited February 8, 2011 by Jerry Biggers

[william.scherk]

The Wikipedia article on Huffington Post mentions that it has come under a good deal of criticism lately from the "skeptics" (Shermer, Kurtz, etc.) community because she has let in some New Ager-types who promote mysticism, pseudoscience nonsense.

Not just the "skeptics," but skeptics too, and not just lately. Even sceptics loathe the HP.

MSK, you will get a kick and a thrill out of the Slate article on Huffington and her SEO whoring . . .

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

William,

Two disciplines that are taught as skills in Internet marketing are repurposing content and site flipping. (If you Google them, you will see.)

AF is good at both and blurs the line with what is supposed to be "content curation." (You can Google that one, too.)

I have to admit, what AF did was the mother of all site-flips.

The keyword stuffing she had done for the start of the Superbowl article is elementary, so the article will soon fall off the search results. But it works short-term. I bet you there are a butt-load of backlinks that suddenly popped up all over the web pointing to that article, too. That's Search Engine Optimization.

Michael

[Robert Campbell]

The first time I saw Arianna Stassinopoulos (as she was then known), she was appearing in one of those Oxford or Cambridge debates, defending a socially conservative, antifeminist position.

I didn't like her presentation at all. Thought it was shallow and sophistical.

At different times she's found it opportune to roost in different places, politically speaking. She sounds just as glibly empty today as a spokeswoman for "progressive" causes.

But she's definitely an operator.

One of the Wall Street Journal editorial writers calls her virtual publication the "Puffington Host."

Jack Shafer just outdid him with "SEO Speedwagon."

Robert Campbell

[BaalChatzaf]

The Wikipedia article on Huffington Post mentions that it has come under a good deal of criticism lately from the "skeptics" (Shermer, Kurtz, etc.) community because she has let in some New Ager-types who promote mysticism, pseudoscience nonsense..

Why the scare quotes for Shermer? He is a skeptic and an enemy of pseudo sh*t right up there with James Randi.

Ba'al Chatzaf