Hufffington Post is now HuffPost, has changed its look and format (many of the sections, like “religion”—which gave me much mirth and fodder—seem to be gone, and the rag is now explicitly devoted to giving voice to the marginalized. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that they frequently do it wrong, can’t distinguish who’s really “marginalized,” and they now must admit what’s been true all along: this is not news, but advocacy.
Click the screenshot to see their explanation:
An excerpt:
I think we can do better for people who feel that too much political and economic power has accrued to a very small elite. People who feel they are on the outside looking in at the prosperity created by globalization and technological transformation. That the game is rigged; that the deck is stacked against them; who feel that the house always wins. That definition includes many, many people who voted for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. I suspect it also includes the majority of people who voted for Trump. It certainly encompasses voters on both sides of Brexit and the French presidential vote that took place over the weekend.
For me, the biggest divide in America, indeed across the globe, is between those who have power and those who don’t, and that doesn’t easily line up with our red and blue, left or right politics. The media has come up short in telling the story of one side of that divide ― of the people experiencing anger, voicelessness and powerlessness.
I don’t believe a word of their claim to give voice to Trump voters or the marginalized lower classes. Expect an even greater plethora of articles extolling the hijab and its wearers, more about “lived experience”, and clickbait pieces like “Samantha Bee schools her haters” or “Chrissie Teigen’s tweet is the perfect response to Ivanka Trump’s speech.”
Maybe they were losing money, but I don’t think this is a solution.
How can we take them seriously?
In the first place, they don’t pay their contributors. Arianna takes the ad money, and expects the writers to work for “exposure”.
And, note the second “sentence” in the quote above. It’s not a sentence. L
They still may not pay contributors, but Arianna has been gone since August 2016.
I had to google SJW. I don’t get out enough.
The excerpt looks like a fine and praiseworthy mission statement.
It will be interesting to see whether they deliver on it.
In particular, will they give a voice to ordinary working class people who do not speak in Approved Middle Class Euphemisms?
A $315 million company proclaims it’s going to look out for the little guy, and gets believed – because they push all the right political buttons.
HuffPo appears to be taking a lesson from Trump.
Nothing wrong with a journal of unusual, suppressed, non-mainstream or unexpected views. I have a feeling this will be nothing of the kind, of course.
The statement échos the key dumbification of the new social justice left: “power” is a singular, objective, easily measured binary attribute. Goldman Sachs, President Trump, your local country club and presumed-white-male internet commenters all have “power.” Manspreaders on the subway have “power.” I, as a white male, have “power.” No further distinction or nuance is required, since “nuance” is just a distraction tactic used by people who want to maintain their “power.”
By the way, did you guys know that “language is important”? I just returned from an academic conference and must have seen that phrase a thousand times. I’m surprised it didn’t make it into this statement. Like references to “power,” it’s now one of the most popular vagueifying phrases used to give the impression of making a statement while actually obscuring your position entirely.
Ah crap, I said “actually.” I’ve been instructed that only mansplainers use that word. I’ll show myself out.
Don’t forget C&C Music Factory. 🙂
When they say, “everybody dance NOW,” I comply.
C&C Music Factory’s famous song is “Gonna Make You Sweat”. I believe you were thinking of SNAP’s “I’ve Got the Power”. Same genre, similar sound, and both were released in 1990.
Yep, those were my jam when I was a tweener!
So much for white guys having all of it then, right? 😉
“For me, the biggest divide in America, indeed across the globe, is between those who have power and those who don’t…”
We learn much about someone when we learn what their primary ideological concern is.
If Le Pen wins the run-off, it’s over for me and Francophilia. I’ma go all “freedom fries” on their derrières.
No way can this Penist termagant govern a country with 246 varieties of cheese.
I feel that would be unmerited. Don’t get me worng, I would be seriously disappointed too.
But the US has Trump, Britain has Theresa May, Russia has Putin and Syria has Assad. It seems to be a disease that’s going around these days.
cr
(And I didn’t even mention Kim Jong Thing*. Well now I have.
*Can never remember if it’s Il or Un)
Smells like desperation to me. There are SO many clickbait sites now. IIRC HuffPo has never actually made sustained money, and now they’ve got an order of magnitude more competition than a few years ago in the “so-and-so had the perfect response to anonymous twitter body shaming” click bait racket. Hence the attempt at rebranding away from yet another news-ish site into a more straightforward SJW rant site. It won’t work though, in terms of acheiving profitability.
The Regressive Left has doubled down, going full-on SJW against the right, the center, and even moderate and classical liberals. They’re the tea party of the progressives and they’re taking over.
We wondered how the tea party took over the right in 2010 or so, now we can see first hand how its happening on our side of the aisle.
A little off topic, but relevant, the NYT has decided to stop using the term female genital mutilation because it’s “culturally loaded”
I couldn’t find the original article on the Times site, though interestingly I found links to letters-to-the-editors criticizing that move.
It has shown up on a number of conservative sites, however including
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/04/24/new-york-times-scraps-female-genital-mutilation-for-being-culturally-loaded-term.html
Culturally loaded – oh really? Maybe it will be “cultural enrichment of girls” from now on.