Archive for the &;Huffington-Post&; Category

Arianna isRight

December 23, 2008

I&;ve often taken a critical look at the Huffington Post, because of their uncool policy of not paying contributors, which is bad in itself and can lead to horrible work like this.  Then there&;s their habit of &;borrowing&; work on the Web.  But there&;s no denying the intelligence and wisdom of its founder, the eponymous Arianna Huffington.  Interviewer Choire Sicha recently asked her, &;What was the most under-covered story of 2008?&; &;I think the most under-covered story for me was: How did we get here? How did we get suddenly, or appear suddenly, in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression? And exactly how did all these billions of dollars disappear? I think most immediately, the most under-covered story is how are the billions of bailout money being spent.&; She&;s right.  Henry Paulson&;s bailout &;plan&; seems to be to fly a helicopter over Wall Street dumping out buckets of cash. But the coverage problem rests with the news media, which seems unwilling and unable to cover the crash of home values, banks, stocks and jobs in ways America can understand and act on.  One reason is that business desks are being slashed and the survivors are dispirited, wondering if their own jobs will be next, making for low-energy reporting.  A second is the &;innumeracy&; too common in the news media, which Yglesias notes has &;almost no understanding of quantitative methods.&;  Finally, you can blame our celebrity culture from Barack to Britney, whether it&;s force-fed to consumers by editors or whether the media is responding to pressure for ratings from their own pressured bosses.

Tags:Arianna-Huffington, Huffington-Post, innumeracy, Yglesias Posted in Huffington-Post, Journalism | Leave a Comment &;

Another Mag Bites theDust

November 6, 2007

After publishing in two centuries (1901-2007) and to five generations of (mostly) women, House and Garden is no more, Mediabistro reports.   Ninety Conde Nast employees will scramble for work within the company or outside. I wasn&;t a writer, subscriber or reader, but to paraphrase John Donne, each magazine&;s death diminishes me.   You could blame the decline of leisure, women&;s changing roles,  the rise of the Internet and of TV shows like HGTV (Home & Garden Television; not related) the dumbing down of America or anything else, but it&;s still sad when a great lady passes. Now the TV writers are on strike, and some think they&;ll be able to contribute to magazines.  Struggling magazine writers don&;t welcome the competition, but if the TV writers are willing to write for free, they&;ll find a home at the Huffington Post. Magazines are dying a hard, slow death.  And those who wrote for them, shot for them, posed in their pages or art directed them are finding the digital transition a difficult one.

Posted in Conde-Nast, death-of-magazines, HGTV, House-and-Garden, Huffington-Post, Mediabistro | Leave a Comment &;