Earlier today I read Noel Sheppard’s amusing post on his attempts to get someone — anyone — at the Huffington Post to explain why they banned Andrew Breitbart from their front page, but have left Bill Maher unmolested. The back story is that PuffHost banned Breitbart for a mild ad hominem on Commie Truther Van Jones, but has elected not to ban Bill Maher, who has twice called Sarah Palin very foul names.
No one questions whether the Huffers have the right to ban one and not the other, but the Host claimed that the Breitbart banning was about elevating the political discourse or whatever, while what Maher said — that didn’t get him banned — was far far worse than anything Breitbart said. And Maher remains unbanned. What’s the policy, Arianna? Don’t look to her latest for answers on this.
Shepherd tried and tried and tried to get an answer, but only got silence. So I was reminded that, back during CPAC, Huffer’s PR guy, Mario Ruiz, was very quick to contact me for a correction for something we posted. He and I had a cordial exchange over the whole thing. He seems like a decent sort.
I thought, why don’t I try and contact him and see if he’ll answer me. So shortly before lunchtime, I emailed him, included a like to Noel’s post, and just asked if he had any comment on it.
Seven hours later, silence. Nada. Crickets.
BTW, in case there’s any question about Van Jones:
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/03/31/van-jones-leads-91201-anti-american-rally-supporting-the-terrorists-as-heroes/
PuffHo? Is this something I should czech out? I’m pretty sure my fiction dance card is already filled up with stuff that actually provides some sort of value for the time spent so I’ll beg off, m’kay?
He’s probably all tangled up in untangling union lines – the ones where actors write for free, taking the bread out of writer’s mouths but would go on strike if a writer acted in movies or TV on a regular basis for free.
Does this sound familiar: “Send us your photos of your trip to India or of this event.” Getting people to supply major website’s with free travel or editorial stock photography, as if stock photographer’s weren’t already getting smushed by websites.
Good thing our union’s are on top of this one and the HuffPo so respectful of people’s careers. Soon we can all work for free or beg on street corners or whatever business model best suits Huffington.
Sounds like a blanket ban on HuffPo links is in order. If they are going to lie to their readers about Breitbart and Maher, what won’t they lie about?
I say Arianna is an unperson until she explains or shapes up.
I wonder if the viability of Huff, NPR, NYT… would remain as high as it is if blogs on the right would simply ignore them, rather than pointing out their goings on.
Fen’s Law: The Left doesn’t really believe in the things they lecture the rest of us about
George Orwell’s Doublethink in action.
Maybe if you resubmit your question, CC’ing the AOL honchos, you’ll get a response?
“CC’ing the AOL honchos”
Since Arianna’s one of those now, doubt it would do much good.
I see where you made your mistake. You assumed they had any scruples, morals, or shame. See? That makes all the difference….
I tried to post a response over at HuffNoMo and most of the time my post, though fact filled, with links, and written in a calm respectful tone would get deleted. Between that and the clumsy comment system I’ve started my own boycott. Let them live in their echo chamber of lies and false idols.
” “Send us your photos of your trip to India or of this event.” Getting people to supply major website’s with free travel or editorial stock photography, as if stock photographer’s weren’t already getting smushed by websites.”
It is a tough gig trying to make money doing stuff people are willing to do for free. Too bad, so sad. It used to be that one needed a telephone operator to place a call. Now everybody does that work for free.
As to “PuffHo,” the answer is obvious. They don’t really care what you or I think.
I can’t wait for this business model to take hold in Hollywood. There are at least as many wannabe actors and singers as there are photographers and writers.
Young actors can be hired for free and sign away their rights in perpetuity just for the exposure and fun of it.
I’d like to see Julia Roberts filling orders in a Teamster distribution warehouse on the overnight shift while filling in on Wed. matinee’s in “A Street Car Named Desire”.
Illegal immigrants are in effect following the HuffPo business model – just ask anyone who hasn’t had a pay raise since people were amazed by ‘Cinerama’.
Union’s are too busy lobbying for arcane political goals to actually protect their own people. Illegal immigrants are more organized than photographers or writers unions but if you’re an entertainer or outfielder, you can get paid a king’s ransom for expressions of physicality – some union’s are smart.
If Snooki was in a writers union, instead of getting 32 grand for entertaining alcoholic Eloi at Rutgers, she’d be writing her memoirs in between business meetings in the backseat of a tricycle in Atlantic City.
Ariana Huffington is nothing but a whore. She goes for the big bucks at all times. I remember when she was writing somewhat conservative op ed pieces, but changed her political philosophy when she found out that the power brokers in Washington and New York were all liberal. So in order to hang out with all the cool kids and schmooze at all the right parties, she switched. She bans Breitbart, and keeps Maher because she thinks that Maher has more star power than Breitbart. It’s as simple as that.
I’d like to see someone send details about this to AOL. Is this who they was to represent them?
I yield to no one in my disdain for Ms. Huffington and her execrable web site but in the great scheme of things who gives a crap about this tempest in a teapot?
This is why conservatives never make headway.
They expect the left to correct their ways when shown that they were hypocrites.
After 10 years, it should be obvious that the left has no problem with hypocrisy. Yet conservatives are too dense to learn this.
Conservatives are way to slow for the ugly business of politics. That is why the left has won so handily.
Please. HuffPo is a leftard, Marxist rag. Of course they’re going to censor factual articles and honest commentators who don’t support their socialist agenda, distortions, and lies. Next question: why waste time with such blatant political propagandists? Personally, I have better things to do.
Typical leftist hypocrisy, the two have become synonymous. Don’t expect any reason or even a smidgen of intelligence from these ideologues, as nothing must be allowed to interfere with their “current truth”.
Oops, I almost clicked on the link in the article. Good thing I saw where it was taking me. I certainly won’t give her any of my traffic.
Bryan:
It’s much more than just Maher’s toilet of a mouth – see this report:
HuffPost’s laughably hypocritical “blogger standards,” and desire for
civil discourse”
http://huff-watch.blogspot.com/2011/03/huffposts-laughably-hypocritical.html
They are lying, pathetic hypocrites, and how anyone in the MSM can take anything Arianna or her minions say seriously is absolutely beyond me.