NBC's Today Leaves Out Liberal Label for Huffington Post in AOL Buyout Coverage
While both CBS's Early Show and ABC's Good Morning America identified The Huffington Post as a liberal blog when discussing AOL purchasing the web site for $315 million, on NBC's Today, news reader Ann Curry simply described it as an "online news site" co-founded by "pundit" Arianna Huffington.
On Good Morning America, news reader JuJu Chang referred to The Huffington Post as a "top-ten news site" but accurately described it as being "co-founded by liberal commentator Arianna Huffington." The Early Show's Jeff Glor did not label the blog a news site at all and was the most direct in pointing out its ideological slant: "Huffington Post, a left-leaning site, was founded in 2005."
None of the network morning shows devoted more than one or two news briefs to the media deal and none suggested anything controversial about a left-wing activist like Arianna Huffington being put in charge of all AOL News content.
As NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell observed in a statement released on Monday: "AOL News is fooling only itself in thinking there is no journalistic conflict in merging with a hate-filled, vicious, radically left-wing rag."
Here is a full transcript of the two Today news briefs on the merger:
7:20AM ET
ANN CURRY: Also in the news this morning, AOL has announced that it will buy the online news site The Huffington Post for $315 million. It is the struggling internet giant's latest foray into the online news business. AOL already owns Patch Media a network of 500 hyper local community news sites. Well, The Huffington Post was co-founded in 2005 by pundit Arianna Huffington and former AOL executive vice president Ken Learer.
9:03AM ET
CURRY: AOL has announced that it will buy the online news site The Huffington Post for $315 million. The deal puts Arianna Huffington in charge of AOL content and reportedly allows The Huffington Post to expand internationally. AOL gains a site that attracts 25 million visitors monthly, that is if the deal wins regulatory approval.
Here is a full transcript of the Good Morning America report:
7:12AM ET
JUJU CHANG: A big merger, realigning the online world this morning to tell you about. AOL is buying the Huffington Post. The top-ten news site, co-founded by liberal commentator Arianna Huffington, launched in 2005 with a $1 million investment. Now AOL is buying it for $315 million to expand its original news content.
Here is a full transcript of the Early Show coverage:
7:14AM ET
JEFF GLOR: It's a big deal in the media world, just announced. AOL is buying the website The Huffington Post in a $315 million deal. Under the terms, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington will join the AOL management team and be in charge of all AOL content. Huffington Post, a left-leaning site, was founded in 2005 and now attracts 25 million visitors a month.
— Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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Comments
oooops. Clearly an oversight
Submitted by redright88 on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 6:18pm.
I'm sure this was not intentional.
HA HA HA HA HA HA.
I
Well, let's hope that AOL has
Submitted by jdhawk on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 9:14pm.
Well, let's hope that AOL has the same crapifier touch to huff and puff it lent to Time Warner when the two companies merged in what has been called the worst merger in history.
The sad thing is that so many lost a bundle after Time Warner bought AOL for $10 billion at the height of the dot bomb era. It has taken years for Time Warner to get rid of AOL and get back its reputation and profitability.
The amazing thing about AOL is that millions of people still subscribe to it and think that going to it is going to the Internet?
By the way, huff and puff''s main claim to fame isn't far liberal blather, but taking a competitor's story and rewriting it. Then, putting a Seach Engine Optimized or SEO title on it and putting it up on her web site. This is done not so much that humans will read them, but that search engines will move the story as close to the top of the search engine page as possible. Thus, ensuring lots of eyeballs and lots of revenue abound. This is something that huff and puff freely admits to and has stated that she is doing to "help" her competitors. Back in the day, it was called plagarizing . . . .
I must be missing something
Submitted by Boudin on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 9:31pm.
So what do you get when you purchase a Hufpo? I would assume it would be a few servers, a geek or 2 to maintain them, and a small staff of hack writers? Did a company Beechcraft and a 300 million dollar building come with it?
Paging Phineas Barnum....
Submitted by drsamherman on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 9:50pm.
...to prove that there is a sucker born every minute. Arianna and her backers are laughing all the way to the bank on the volunteer bloggers. Of course, they all probably believe they will be cut a check for their efforts. Perhaps they should whine about wealth redistribution to Zsa Zsa Huffington.