From Michael Calderone at Politico’s recent profile of The Huffington Post:
“While (The Huffington Post) wants to be taken seriously, much of its traffic is driven by entertainment and sex. While it ridicules mainstream media, it relies on it for much of its content.”
He goes on.
“But if political coverage gets the most attention in Washington, more than half Huffington Post’s traffic is driven by gossip and entertainment stories. The day the Froomkin news broke, for example, the site’s most popular story wasn’t about health care – it was “American Flag Bikini Moments: What’s YOUR Favorite?” Indeed, the Washington City Paper’s Amanda Hess called attention to the sometimes schizophrenic nature of the site in a recent piece: “Liberal Politics, Sexist Entertainment.” Similarly, columnist Simon Dumenco, last month in AdAge, wrote that the Huffington Post “likes to pretend that it’s a respectable voice in the mediasphere, but it shamelessly pumps up its traffic by being just as trashy as, say, Maxim.”
And finally, a quote from Arianna: “The idea that there is a progressive way to cover entertainment and a conservative way is laughable.”
True enough, but might there be a better way?
(via The Daily Dish)
3 responses
might there be a better way?
Don’t cover it? I’m a long time of the “I hate that I even know who you are” club when it comes to most celebrities, though, so I’m probably not the person to come to for answers to this sort of issue.
You know what? I have despised HuffPo for a long time, and I haven’t given the page more than a handful of pageviews since the presidential election ended. Even during the election, I valued it mostly as an aggregator of news sources I wouldn’t otherwise check. But please note, I’d check it only in addition to my primary news sources.
Just my two cents, but the idea that the HuffPo is some kind of model for journalism to follow in the future is either a sick joke or is laughably naive. It’s basically a parasite on old media companies, and it’s unacceptably exploitative towards contributors, and I think these obvious facts are giving new media an undeservedly bad reputation among civilians — and besides, it sets a bad example for other would-be moguls of new media, encouraging them to be exploitative and parasitical.
I didn’t know that the Huffington Post wanted to be taken seriously. For reals? It is kinda fun to read.
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