AOL To Buy Huffington Post 160
Hugh Pickens writes writes "The La Times reports that AOL has agreed to purchase the Huffington Post for $315 million. The purchase will increase AOL's news portfolio as it competes against Yahoo's growing online news publication profile and Google's news efforts, as well as traditional media companies online. The purchase has yet to acquire government approvals, but the boards of directors of each company and shareholders of the Huffington Post have approved the transaction."
who's taking over whom? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:AOL are still going? (Score:4, Insightful)
Aw someone make a point about a news source you like?
Finding news that really does not have a 'spin' on it is hard. Fox is right up there with spin. However, you can not sit there with a straight face and say Huffington is any better. Fox is just more blatant about it. It is the subtle ones you need to watch out for. They do that by fact stacking and putting opinions after the facts or running them together. Another way is to put the facts that make something look bad at the top of an article and the ones that they dont like so much near the end (as many people only read the first few paragraphs and they know it).
People say 'reality has a liberal bias'. What big pile of steaming ... (see how I put an opinion in the middle here) The stories will have whatever spin the editor of the story puts on it even if they do not realize they are doing it. 'Blogs' are even worse as they are usually by people who are interested in the story. So they put their own take on it.
What it comes down to it though, is facts based news does not sell as well. As it is rather dull and boring. "If it bleeds it leads".
People also like paying for self affirmation. "see I was right and those xyzs were total loon jobs". So while you may not like Fox news there are many out there that like hearing that sort of news. Just as there are many out there who like watching CNN/MSNBC.
Filter out the opinions on stories (many many many have them). You will see much of the 'news' is just opinion fluffer. The op'ed pieces are easy to filter. It is the ones where they bury it in the story... Do not let others tell you what your opinion is. Make up your own mind with the thing holding your ears apart. That is why I do not watch the newsertainment stations.
Re:AOL are still going? (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed, blatant spin is easier to deal with, bullshit filter gets triggered early. News sources that pretend to be "fair and balanced" (to steal the Fox line) but are really spun to buggery are the hard ones to deal with. I prefer to get my news from multiple sources and make up my own mind.
Being spoon fed any news is a bad thing.
Uh (Score:4, Insightful)
The Huffington Post is news? I always thought of it as a mega-blog of commentary. Perhaps there belays a shift in our cultural thinking as traditional journalism dies and commentary from biases become the norm and thus the only thing we can call "news."
Re:AOL are still going? (Score:4, Insightful)
Huffington Post's biggest claim to fame in recent years has been as a haven for the anti-vaccination lunacy of retards like Jenny McCarthy, Dana Ullman, and followers of Andrew Wakefield.
The HP might be fine for political commentary but it is a haven for quacks, woos and snakeoil salesmen peddling all kinds of pseudo scientific new age nonsense. It is as anti-science and anti-reality. Not surprisingly many liberals, especially scientists and academics are as ashamed by what the HP promotes as conservatives are of creationist drool that infects their blogs.
Re:AOL are still going? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know. Huffington Post and DailyKos were the two big attempts of the left wing to create their own "viral" websites. The end result's been a lot of hate speech, a whole lot of banned commentariat, and very little if anything accomplished.
I'd say that turning a $1 million investment into a $315 million buyout is one hell of an accomplishment.
Re:AOL are still going? (Score:2, Insightful)
Yawn.....go back to Fox News where you belong....
Yeah! Everyone knows there is only bias on one side.
The side you do not like.