Listen up: I am a HUGE user of the internet. At this point, it is most certainly my main source for three things in particular: News, Information, and Entertainment. In these particular arenas, I am never hesitant to take advantage of the web's inherent shareability and, as they say, follow the crowd. Early on, I learned to trust (or at least try) these single-click recommendations. As soon as Facebook was available to students at Boston College, I signed right up. When all of my friends began sharing funny posts from BuzzFeed and LameBook, I added those sites to my bookmarks toolbar. Cool kids I know here in San Francisco follow local blogs like Mission Mission and SF Citizen and, as a direct result, I do too. I trust these people and, as such, I follow their leads. But there's one popular site where I draw the line, and that is what we're here to discuss.
Stated matter-of-factly: I HATE The Huffington Post. Yes, we all know that "hate" is a strong word, but that's the kind of ire this ridiculous hodgepodge of fact, fiction, and general farcicality provokes in me. What is it about this site that has everyone going once and then, horror of all horrors, going back for more? If they love it so much, why do I feel such the opposite? What is it about this site that gets me so riled up? Well, that's actually a question that I can answer.
Let's start with the homepage, if you can focus your eyes long enough to even see what's going on. I am a product of the so-called 'ADD Generation' -- you know, those of us who text, type, listen to music and read all at the same time --, and even I'm overwhelmed by the mixing and matching of widely divergent subject matter, distracted by the blown-up, unnecessary, and viciously unflattering photographs. While the areas of interest are clearly listed at the top of the site, they are muddled and inexplicably interspersed in the body of the page. And let's take a minute to look at those areas of interest, shall we? It seems The Huffington Post wants to cover everything, eschewing the simplicity of sticking to easily related topics like politics, business, and the media, and scrounging to cover style, living, college, and even arts and religion. Yes, I understand that, in the grand scheme of things, it's all related. But, this isn't the grand scheme of things; this is one website, and I simply don't trust the same outlet that promotes Kate Gosselin's Bikini Workout to adequately address America's broken housing market.
In an attempt to help HuffPo justify such incomprehensible coverage, I searched the site for some sort of statement of purpose, a mission that could make their motives clear. It wasn't in 'About Us', nor did it play into the FAQ or anywhere else -- I found nothing. What I did find, quite easily, were enlightening and photo-rich articles like Most Challenging Traffic Signs Ever, Meals That Don't Live Up to Their Ads and The Most Homoerotic Photos of Politicians Ever Taken. Great!
Now, before you dismiss me as a square or a spoil-sport: I'm really not. I'm all for the trashy and the tasteless. I read Texts From Last Night and The Superficial on a regular basis. But these sites make no pretense of being anything other than what they are: scandalous and sensational forms of meaningless entertainment. HuffPo, on the other hand, commits the unpardonable sin of mixing what is actually important with what is truly insignificant. On top of that, the site both panders to and publishes people I really admire and respect, including a number of Berrett-Koehler authors. By mixing the thoughts of real visionaries with flowcharts like 'Where Should You Pee?', The Huffington Post is completely diluting the power and importance of both.
I simply don't have the time or space to get into the hypocrisy of former conservative pundit Arianna Huffington hosting this "digital dinner party for her new liberal friends", but I will lament the success that she's had doing so, and the negative light that now shines on the 'liberal media' and progressive politics and reporting.
So, tell me what you think. Do you read The Huffington Post? If so, why? What am I not getting? And, if you don't, please use this blog posting as a forum to voice your reasons why.
Bonnie
I agree. Anonymous publicist.
ReplyDeletePlease don't ever get mad at me!!!!!
ReplyDeleteBonnie - All good points (spoken as a fellow HuffPo hater), and one you may have overlooked: what is it that drives Left Media to hold this site in such high esteem? Why not a site like Talking Points Memo or Think Progress (I'm not in love with the snobs at Daily Kos either)?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post, but admit I do read HuffPo fairly regularly. While I agree with you the page design leaves much to be desired, I wonder if you equally loathed daily newspapers (which also mix news, politics, opinion columns, editorials, entertainment, gossip columns, advice columns, photo essays, etc. etc.)
ReplyDeleteAnother thing is I admire that the Huffington Post was among the first to recognize the death of traditional news delivery much more quickly than newspapers, or even broadcast, and capitalized on it. It's still shaking out, but its been a pretty good way to experiment with a new model of news/content delivery.
I take a lot of the content with a grain of salt, and certainly do not rely on it for my main source of news, but for those of us who like news/entertainment and the occasional scandal or mindless inanity, it provides a fairly thorough integration.
Maren,
ReplyDeleteYou know, as I was posting this (I still write everything out on paper and then transcribe), the realization struck that much of this could be used in an attack on traditional newspapers, as well. While that did make me feel guilty (knee-jerk reaction of someone conflicted by their own role in the demise of print publishing), the truth of the matter is that I never was a big newspaper reader. By the time I really started following news and events -- I was a bit of a late bloomer in that regard -- I was able to use the internet as my primary source of information. Also - I'm not very coordinated, and the unwieldy nature of newspaper was always just too much for me.
Thanks for reading and weighing in!
Bonnie,
ReplyDeleteI hate (OK, strongly dislike) HuffPo too. What I strongly dislike about it, though, is the "hate."
A number of other partisan websites fall into that category for me as well - left and right. Hate media in general may massage some egos, but do not help stimulate a good, thoughtful conversation and dialogue. They seem to make everyone feel unsafe and angry.
I'm not sure I agree about the site's lack of focus as a problem. I grew up in the era of newspapers and loved to open to section after section at the breakfast table for a well-rounded news experience. Of course now, with the internet, we have lots of options at our fingertips for finding specialized content and the one-publication-for-everything model probably is outdated - but it just doesn't bother me. The problem with a website like HuffPo, for me, has more to do with the hateful tone than overly diverse or chaotic content.
Thanks for writing about this.