NewsBusters Publisher Bozell: 'AOL News Has Lost Its Mind' with HuffPo Buyout
Editor's Note: Following news reports today that AOL News would pay $315 million to acquire The Huffington Post, NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center president Brent Bozell issued the following statement:
This proves AOL News has lost its mind. They must be in such dire straits that they’ve been blinded by the millions and think an acquisition of The Huffington Post is worth sacrificing credibility and objectivity. AOL News is fooling only itself in thinking there is no journalistic conflict in merging with a hate-filled, vicious, radically left-wing rag.
Let’s do a quick review of The Huffington Post. Our ‘Huffington’s House of Horrors’ Special Report revealed beyond a shadow of a doubt ongoing campaign of profanity, crude sexual and excretory metaphors and outright hate speech against conservatives, all under the leadership of Arianna Huffington. In fact, just last month, Huffington's site published a man saying the next 'Great American Story' would be Dick Cheney receiving a heart transplant from a brain-dead American soldier from Iraq, possibly causing ‘the heart to implode knowing it was trapped inside Dick Cheney.’
So when Arianna brags today that ‘I laid out my vision for the expansion of The Huffington Post, and he laid out his vision for AOL. We were practically finishing each other's sentences,’ we can only assume that AOL News has been infected with the same vicious motive: to target and obscenely smear conservatives. They can do that if they want, of course, but please don’t call it AOL ‘News.’ That’s now become an insult.
The image above is a screen capture from the Huffington Post website earlier today.
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Comments
Doesn't seem like it had a
Submitted by rbosque on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 3:56pm.
Doesn't seem like it had a mind to begin with.
Just like AOL and Time Warner
Submitted by gwalt on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 4:02pm.
This has breakup written all over it. Don't be surprised if this thing turns out to be a disaster.
"A lot of briefing for a 2 hr. special with Dan Rather. Saw the show & wonder why we bothered". Ronald Reagan
No it is brilliant
Submitted by dmambrose on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 7:00pm.
This is the new way of making money. Take an old dying company, borrow hundereds of milllions and buy out a friends faux-companies with no revenue and then let them die out and the friend cashing in 300 million. then reverse.
infected with the same vicious motive: to target and obscenely s
Submitted by Bosco1123 on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 4:06pm.
I wonder how long it would take me to find a similar description, though mirrored reflection, of NewsBusters on the Huffington Post site?
Lost its mind?
Submitted by jon_torlin on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 4:09pm.
They can't lose what they don't have.
-Jon
Ok
Submitted by 10ksnooker on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 4:24pm.
So does AOL still do something? What? And who would care.
Yes, AOL still does something
Submitted by SickofLibs on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 4:48pm.
They continue to provide the crappiest email service of all time to those who liked the way the email was in 1997.
My thoughts exactly...
Submitted by PrairieSky on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 4:34pm.
Whatever limited use I ever had for anything connected to AOL, is now gone as a result of this buyout. As far as I'm concerned, anything or anyone that has anything to do with HuffPo has zero credibility, and that now includes AOL News. Looks like they're going down the same road as Google News and Yahoo News...They're all left-leaning, so I take what I read on them (when I bother to read them at all) with a HUGE grain of salt.
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction...It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them (our children) to do the same." ~President Ronald Reagan
Arianna Huffington Without Make-Up
Submitted by im41 on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 4:36pm.
Behold Your New Boss AOL!!
Didn't Know AOL still existed until I read this Article!
Submitted by gruyere cheese on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 4:56pm.
All I can think of is the "you got mail" voice over and a land line attached to my prehistoric computer. There are so yesterday!!
With the AOL bucks, maybe Arianna won't
Submitted by no tingly legs on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 4:56pm.
have to marry rich gay guys anymore.
Another Yahoo
Submitted by Utherpend on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 5:07pm.
I cant tell which is more biased, Google, Yahoo or AoL, most simply reprint whatever the AP or very liberal columnist feel is news to them. Never mind that most of the comments on Yahoo are the opposite to what the site tries to sell to their members.
But, but, but . . . .
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 5:11pm.
The usual pundits say it's a great idea.
A Financial Disaster
Submitted by MediaMike on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 5:33pm.
Mr. Bozell is correct about the useless propoganda spewed at the huffpo ... but I'm hearing in the advertising business that there so-called visitor numbers are way out of whack to the point of fraud. Another stupid decision by the "feelie" good liberals.
A few thoughts
Submitted by Rush to Judgement on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 5:49pm.
Unless AOL begins promoting the Huffington Post as "news" this is nothing more than one corporation purchasing another for the sake of building a more profitable business empire. The presumed bias is merely rhetoric, for it's no different than calling NewsCorp a liberal-biased company over their Fox entertainment station. A successful business owner should know how to keep his departments categorized and on track per their defined functions.
I am surprised to hear that
Submitted by seanrobins on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 6:11pm.
I am surprised to hear that AOL is even still an ongoing business concern.... Say, can i. Still get one of those discs things from AOL so that I can sign up for that Internet stuff?sean robins
AOL... I thought they died
Submitted by Van Halen on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 6:20pm.
AOL... I thought they died with GEnie and Compuserve. Are they still around?
Drunks
Submitted by Moosebuster on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 6:27pm.
AOL is like a drunk. Drunks will buy ANYTHING.
Can't wait
Submitted by HockeyKid on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 6:31pm.
to see how quickly AOhell's stock tanks.
It's down 3.4% today, just on the new of the pending merger.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Hail Mary
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 7:11pm.
Since we had the Superbowl yesterday, I use this football analogy. AOL is a shrinking, money losing, business. If they sat on this cash, they'd go out of business sooner or later. Throwing this money away will just speed up the process. It may look like a "Hail Mary" pass to try and win the game in the last second, but even that looks incredible, on it's face.
My guess is that there is more to this aquisition then meets the eye. This wouldn't be the first time that a CEO of a company that was bleeding red ink tried to further his own interests with a ridiculous, money losing, aquisition.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
Elites Bashing Gays
Submitted by politicalpaw on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 7:35pm.
Elites Humiliating and Bashing Americans they purport to support while exploiting for votes http://huff.to/hIaOIj
They're Toast
Submitted by bravefacari on Tue, 02/08/2011 - 2:56am.
That's it for AOL and if we're lucking Huffington Post (I know, I can dream can't I?) ... It has been a painful thing to watch giant AOL continue to misjudge and misstep in the internet markets and this one will be its final nail in the coffin. But Arianna will walk away having added a nice little nest egg to her fortune.
My feedback to AOL on canceling last night
Submitted by Vivaldi5 on Tue, 02/08/2011 - 7:03am.
Nice gator type
Submitted by Jack Bauer on Tue, 02/08/2011 - 1:01pm.
Nice gator type feedback.
Talk about AOL biting off the hands that feed it!
All of the above Mr Obama? --- How about ALL OF THE BELOW, instead.
A-hOLe News has a nice ring?
Submitted by Jack Bauer on Tue, 02/08/2011 - 1:02pm.
A-hOLe News has a nice ring? N'est pas?
Anyone in bed with La Puffington could also change their name to AAOL: Anti-America OnLine
All of the above Mr Obama? --- How about ALL OF THE BELOW, instead.