From the New York Times:
Arianna Huffington, the columnist and onetime candidate for governor of California, is about to move blogging from the realm of the anonymous individual to the realm of the celebrity collective. She has lined up more than 250 of what she calls “the most creative minds” in the country to write a group blog that will range over topics from politics and entertainment to sports and religion. It is essentially a nonstop virtual talk show that will be part of a Web site that will also serve up breaking news around the clock. It is to be introduced May 9…
Among those signed up to contribute are Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer and Mortimer B. Zuckerman…
The Post will also set another blogging milestone: Ms. Huffington has signed a contract with Tribune Media Services, which syndicates her newspaper column, to syndicate parts of her blog to newspapers and their Web sites.
As I’ve yet to be contacted, I’m guessing that it means that she doesn’t find mine to be one of the 250 most creative minds in America. (And here I thought that I made a really good impression when, dripping sweat and muttering unintelligibly, I handed her that book to sign.) That in itself doesn’t bother me too much, but, to be honest, knowing that Diane Keaton made the cut while I didn’t kind of pisses me off. (I haven’t been a Diane Keaton fan since someone in LA, who had worked with her on a film, told me that she was a mean bitch… Little things like that make a huge impression on me… I don’t think I’ve ever shared this with you, but my dislike of Diane Keaton is so great, I haven’t to this day seen the film “Look Who’s Talking Now.”)
I’ll keep my eye on this project of Arianna’s as I’m curious to see how it plays out, but I’m not expecting much. There might be an occasional glimmer of insight, but, more often that not, I think visitors will find themselves staring at the narcissistic and boorish rantings of b-list celebrities and Hollywood hacks. (I’m impressed by the print tie-in though. That’s pretty cool.) If you’re interested, you can leave your email address and Arianna will send you a note when the site goes live.
14 Comments
She is a double agent. Watch her closely, Mark. How the hell did she get such “power” anyway? I just remember her antagonizing Al Franken on Politically Incorrect–is that a resume? She was a big idiot back then, spouting Rush Limbaugh style arguments and Limbaughesque logic. Arnold, Quayle, GW, Huffington, etc. Is there a plot to dumb down politics on both sides?
No doubt, then, it’s going to be a collective blog of the dumbest minds in the blogosphere. Check out Znet or Dissident Voice if you want to see what liberal intellectuals (those nefarious Darth Vader wannabes) are doing. Maybe this will be yet another attempt to sell out and center the Democratic Party–move it over more to the right. Sorry to be so cynical, but I dislike most of the “bigname” blogs that I have read–especially when some corrupt news organization trumpets its reporters as free-minded individuals. My ass–the filtering carries over to these blogs.
On the other hand, if Ariel actually pulls in some radical liberal bloggers–without watering them down–it might make some of the pragmatic ideas of the left mainstream. They just have to repeat the ideas as often as possible. Exposure + Repetition = Truth.
I still think that Ariel/Judas is a Rove puppet.
Mark,
Someone sent me this link and I immediately thought of sharing it with you and your group. Maybe you have already posted this but if not here it is:
http://www.savetoby.com/
Mark, have you been bugging Arianna to be included? Marketing, marketing, marketing! I am sure you have been passed over purely because of lack of knowing. There is always room for a little ball shaving in the grand scheme of things.
I think it might be interesting. But then I have to admit that there is a part of me that really likes to see how narcissistic Hollywood has made some people. I guess I am fascinated with narcissism for some reason. Plus, I hope that at least some of the 250 people are famous because they write. Good writing is always a pleasure to read.
Oh and just so you know. I don
I didn’t even know that Huffington had a blog! Maybe she needs to market to me.
Arianna leapt off the cuckoo lady train just as it was pulling out of the station, and Anne Coulter slithered into the conductor’s seat. It was one of the smartest things she ever did, and more people should have taken her example to heart. She, if you believe her, saw the Republican party being pulled toward the extreme right and she bailed out rather than that be dragged along. I imagine that it would have been more lucrative for her to have stuck it out and played along. My sense is that she had the chops to be bigger than Anne Coulter (she’s smarter), but not the stomach for the game. It takes a special kind of woman to defend McCarthyism (like Coulter) or the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII (like Michelle Malkin). You might be right though, Dirtgrain, she might not be trustworthy, but I suspect she just wanted to be able to sleep at night.
Again, I will ask all of you (noone answered the last time), why did she have a cameo on the L Word? Melissa Rivers…well OK, but Arianna Huffington? It was so random I am still trying to make sense of it.
Chris, she’s got friends in Hollywood and she enjoys the spotlight. I don’t think it’s anything sinister. She probably just let someone know that she’d be interested in doing it and they wrote her in… It’s not like the time Republican strategist Frank Luntz was being yelled at by male models on “Mister Romance.”
As for whether or not she’s a Republican plant, I agree with Tony. I suppose she could have seen an untapped market on the Democratic side and made the jump, but I think the chances of that being the case are pretty slim. My guess is that she was comfortable with the team she started with (Newt and company), but then got cold feet once things started getting creepy.
RU Sirius about the Mr. Romance thing? Though I was surprised that he was gullible enough to offer himself up to the likes of Samantha Bee on the Daily Show.
Scroll back a few days, Chris. There’s a post about it… I didn’t see the “Mr Romance” thing, but someone wrote in about it and I posted their letter.
Here’s The Guardian spoof of Huffington’s blog. I laughed out loud.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1471120,00.html?gusrc=rss
http://tinypic.com/dpfedz.jpg
I caught Arianna on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2005 in a Chevy Suburban. She was keynote speaker at the Sierra Club Summit. This is the “gas guzzling pollution spewing behemoth” vehicle that picked her up and took her back to the airport. The photo is dark, but it is really her. That has been admitted by Roy Sekoff, editor of the Huffington Post. Oh, but of course, it wasn’t Arianna’s fault. This is the ride provided for her by the Sierra Club. Gee, Arianna, did they force you at gunpoint to get in?
She has a big house too. That just makes her a hypocrite though, it doesn’t mean her points aren’t valid.