HuffPost
HuffPost (The Huffington Post until 2017; often abbreviated as HuffPo) is an American progressive[1][2][3][4] news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy eating, young women's interests, and local news featuring columnists.[5] It was created to provide a progressive alternative to conservative news websites such as the Drudge Report.[6][7][8][9] The site contains its own content and user-generated content via video blogging, audio, and photo.[10] In 2012, the website became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize.[11]
Type of site
News aggregator, blog
- English
- French
- Greek
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Portuguese
- Spanish
May 9, 2005
770 Broadway
New York City, U.S.
AOL (2011–2015)
Oath/Verizon Media (2015–2020)
BuzzFeed (2020–present)
No
Optional
May 9, 2005
Active
Founded by Arianna Huffington, Andrew Breitbart, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti,[9][12] the site was launched on May 9, 2005, as a counterpart to the Drudge Report.[13] In March 2011, it was acquired by AOL for US$315 million, with Arianna Huffington appointed editor-in-chief.[14][15] In June 2015, Verizon Communications acquired AOL for US$4.4 billion, and the site became a part of Verizon Media.[16] In November 2020, BuzzFeed acquired the company.[17] Weeks after the acquisition, BuzzFeed laid off 47 HuffPost staff, mostly journalists, in the U.S.[18] and closed down HuffPost Canada, laying off 23 staff working for the Canadian and Quebec divisions of the company.[19]
Criticism and controversy[edit]
Unpaid bloggers[edit]
The site originally published work from both paid reporters and unpaid bloggers through its contributor platform.[91]
In February 2011, Visual Art Source, which had been cross-posting material from its website, went on strike against The Huffington Post to protest against its writers not being paid.[92][93] In March 2011, the strike and the call to boycott was joined and endorsed by the National Writers Union and NewsGuild-CWA; however, the boycott was dropped in October 2011.[94]
In April 2011, The Huffington Post was targeted with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by Jonathan Tasini on behalf of thousands of bloggers who had submitted material to the website.[36][95] On March 30, 2012, the suit was dismissed with prejudice by the court, holding that the bloggers had volunteered their services, their compensation being publication.[36]
In 2015, Wil Wheaton stated that he refused to allow his work to be reused for free on the site.[96][97]
The practice of publishing blog posts from unpaid contributors ended in January 2018. This transformed the site, which had become notable for featuring extensive sections in a broad range of subjects from a significant number of contributors.[98] Contributors had included:
Political stance[edit]
HuffPost has been seen as a mostly progressive, liberal or liberal-leaning outlet,[1] being described as such by the BBC,[2] CNN,[3] and Politico.[4] Upon becoming the editor-in-chief in December 2016, Lydia Polgreen said that the "wave of intolerance and bigotry that seems to be sweeping the globe" after the election as US president of Donald Trump was remarkable, and that The Huffington Post had an "absolutely indispensable role to play in this era in human history."[40]
Commenting in 2012 on increased conservative engagement on the website despite its reputation as a liberal news source, The Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington stated that her website was "increasingly seen" as an Internet newspaper that is "not positioned ideologically in terms of how we cover the news".[172] According to Michael Steel, press secretary for Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, Republican aides "engage with liberal websites like The Huffington Post [anyway, if for] no other reason than [because] they drive a lot of cable coverage".[172] Jon Bekken, journalism professor at Suffolk University, has cited it as an example of an "advocacy newspaper".[173] The Wall Street Journal editor James Taranto has mockingly referred to it as the "Puffington Host", while Rush Limbaugh referred to it as the "Huffing and Puffington Post".[174]
During the 2016 United States presidential election, HuffPost regularly appended an editor's note to the end of stories about candidate Donald Trump, reading: "Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims—1.6 billion members of an entire religion—from entering the U.S." After Trump was elected on November 8, 2016, HuffPost ended this practice to "give respect to the office of the presidency."[175][176]
