The past few days a number of people have asked me the same question: Are you going to start billing the Huffington Post for your columns? A few others have asked why would you keep posting for free on a site that presumably has just scored a financial windfall. The answer to the first question is a flat no. The reason for that has been amply hashed out by several other HuffPost writers. They have rightly pointed out that HuffPost has given them incredible access, exposure, and a small and in a not so small way, political clout and influence.
That's certainly been the case with this writer. But that's the obvious reason. There's a bigger reason for applauding HuffPost's deal with AOL, and the largess it reaped. For the first time a progressive, even left if you will, media entity has actually attained what seemed an absolute impossibility. And that's a break from the seemingly ironclad monopoly of a mass media that is both dominated by and dependent on corporate conservative and right wing think tank dollars. It's a media that has been the relentless gatekeeper and shill for corporate, establishment views, ideology and personalities.
It's no accident that talk radio, the major political blogs and websites, Fox News Network, Palin, Hannity, Beck, and Limbaugh have become household names because of the money, power and tight-fisted dominance of their corporate backers. They've drowned out any other voices, with even the faintest utterance of liberal, let alone progressive, views from the airwaves and mass audience publications. That is until the Huffington Post came along. It had the wherewithal, creativity, and reach to pose a solid alternative to the corporate media cabal. But it also did something that a host of progressive media outlets, publications, and sites couldn't hope to do. It did not just preach to the choir, but actually began to make major inroads into grabbing a share of the wider reading public. It eventually caught the attention of and had a major impact on policy makers of all political stripes.
This was a first that happened because the Huffington Post, in addition to having the right view on the issues, also more crucially had the right business model. It recognized that without an aggressive expansion plan that emphasized -- the arts, mass entertainment, yes, even titillation, pop music, sex and frivolity, sports, and local news -- it would remain just another left cyber rag.
This wasn't just a case of HuffPost pandering to the raw tastes of the unwashed masses. It recognized that to reach and get the attention of the Oprah and popcorn crowd it had to give them something that appealed to them. It dared to go somewhere and take the heaps of criticism piled on it from the left, as a "sell-out," "panderer," "hustler," media pimp" and so on that it regularly got for making the site broad and popular.
What was missed in the vilification (and still missed) is that by bringing in readers who wouldn't typically give a progressive media blog or site the time of day, let alone a look during the day, just maybe some of them might stick around long enough to read the core, provocative political columns and views of progressive writers and analysts -- and that included the columns of this writer. It was about preaching to the bigger choir.
Yes, money is important to a writer, and that certainly includes this writer. We all have bills to pay and mouths to feed. But to a media that's largely locked tight against progressive writers anyway, having a column on HuffPost has proven to be literally worth more than the nonexistent dollars that progressives could never get from the Foxes and Clear Channels that have blanketed the media world. Instead of damning The Huffington Post and Arianna for that, we should thank her for doing the seemingly impossible and taking us along with her.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts national Capitol Hill broadcast radio talk show on KTYM Radio Los Angeles and WFAX Radio Washington D.C. streamed on ktym.com and wfax.com and internet TV broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earlhutchinson
Good post..
Despite the bank & Wall St bailouts, bankers & investors / the wealthy turned their backs on the lower 98% of us, once they got their bonuses & tax breaks - including those who collected their ill gotten gains from stealing other's pensions & 401ks etc.
Banks joined in & stopped extending credit, so small businesses couldn't keep operating.Millions more lost their jobs.Towns lost tax revenues...people lost their homes, schools closed, etc. & home equity went out the windows of those counting on it for their retirement, etc....
That's the cold reality about trickle down economics in the US - it's a myth. Always was.
They have a plan....Let's just say - they're not that into the needs of the poor & formerly middle class.
To me it would be so boring if we all agreed on everything!
F&F
CABLE NEWS RACE
THURS., FEB 10, 2011
FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,325,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,335,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,293,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,243,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 1,936,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 1,744,000
CNN BLITZER 1,036,000
CNN MORGAN 941,000
MSNBC HARDBLL 844,000
MSNBC O'DONNELL 843,000
CNN COOPER 826,000
MSNBC MADDOW 765,000
CNN PARKERSPITZER 724,000
MSNBC SHULTZ 575,000
In fairness of disclosure. I do not watch ot listen to, Beck, Hannity, Rush, Schultz or Savage. I realize the more radical the statement the more money you make. Let's just take the current K.O. situation No more money no more Keith!
The R's have had total control of the talking points since Obama was elected.The Dems have been on the defensive,polite & reasonable - well the mid-terms losses are what they got for their efforts at bipartisanship!
The R's got their tax cuts for the rich that we as a nation could ill afford.The whole time Obama said he'd veto that, didn't he - or am I dreaming?The argument that this upper crust would be where the new jobs would come from, but over the bsh/chny years, & due to their policies, only 1 million jobs were created in 8 yrs & then 8 million were lost!
The top 2 - 3 % benefited from floods of cash due to corruption on Wall St., then got bonuses!Now Obama's talking about cutting support to keep the poor's homes heated!Even the HC bill was an insurance company windfall.
What happened to the discussions about just what the HC bill would entail? We rarely if ever heard the details - but the talk of Death Panels, & the disruptions by the paid insurance lobbyist shills were on numerous times - everywhere.They were never forced to be respectful so others could hear the speakers & ask the questions that some of them drove many miles to have answered.
It doesn't seem like it made a bit of difference a Dem POTUS was elected, all we hear from are the R's!
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Yes, the National Enquirer fans who come here for celebri-fun and nudie pics will no doubt spend the rest of their free time reading the serious political andbusiness blogs.
Thanks for the chuckle!
You've got to be kidding me. All the HP/AOL merger will do is put them in the same company as that of CBS, NBC, ABC, the Wash Post, the NYT, etc. Those entities have been firmly in the (ahem ) progressive (read, leftist/liberal) camp forever now!.
If the HP REALLY wanted to distinguish themselves, and make a move away from what's become the ordinary, then they ought to allow for non-leftists to contribute on here. Thye don't have to abandon their leftist world view, just let the other side pipe up. I'm sure that will result in more money for the owners, which is what this is really all about!
I am reserving my judgment. I'm pretty sure that Arianna is smart enough to get the right kind of deal and to maintain control over content.
It's been all tea party all the time for awhile now.
She's cultivated a hatred of business and corporations and then was bought by one. of course she's getting calls of sell out. she reaped what she sowed.