The liberal media world has had two tectonic earthquakes in this short year: Keith Olbermann is headed to Current TV, and Arianna Huffington announced that the Huffington Post is becoming part of the America Online (AOL) corporate empire. People scoffed at Olbermann's move to tiny Current, but between the two, I like his chances at keeping an honest media dialogue going much better.
Arianna Huffington launched her company into the corporate media world last week when she notified the troops here in the blogging end of HuffPo thusly:
"We are writing with some very exciting news. As you will see if you click on the HuffPost home page, The Huffington Post has been acquired by AOL, instantly creating one of the biggest media companies in the world, with global, national, and local reach -- combining original reporting, opinion, video, social engagement and community, and leveraged across every platform, including the web, mobile, and tablets.
"Central to all of this will be the kind of fresh, insightful, and influential takes on the issues of the day that you and the rest of our bloggers regularly deliver. Our bloggers have always been a very big part of HuffPost's identity - and will continue to be a very big part of who we are.
"When the Huffington Post launched in May 2005, we had high hopes. But we would have been hard pressed to predict that less than six years later we would be able to announce a deal that now makes it possible for us to execute our vision at light speed...
"Together, our companies will have a combined base of 117 million unique U.S. visitors a month -- and 250 million around the world -- so your posts will have an even bigger impact on the national and global conversation. That's the only real change you'll notice -- more people reading what you wrote.
"Far from changing the Huffington Post's editorial approach, our culture, or our mission, it will be like stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet. We're still traveling toward the same destination, with the same people at the wheel, and with the same goals, but we're now going to get there much, much faster.
"Thank you for being such a vital part of the HuffPost family - which has suddenly gotten a whole lot bigger.
All the best,
Arianna, Roy, David, and the HuffPost Blog Team"
By contrast, Keith Olbermann, whose rancorous departure from MSNBC has been the subject of a lot of chatter on TV and in the blogosphere, announced his leaning forward would now be done at Current TV:
Nothing is more vital to a free America than a free media, and nothing is more vital to my concept of a free media than news produced independently of corporate interference. In Current Media, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt have created the model truth-seeking entity. The opportunity to partner with Al, Joel and Mark Rosenthal makes this the most exciting venture in my career.
I owe Mr. Olbermann an apology. I sent out a tweet questioning the wisdom of his move to tiny Current TV, which seemed, intially, like more of an ill-thought-out self-exile than a chance at keeping his bold voice speaking truth to power from a large enough bully pulpit that he might be heard.
I believe, between the two, that Mr. Olbermann has the better deal here. Working with Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, who are building the blocks of a progressive cable channel may be vastly better than an America Online littered with also-ran properties that have been pushed aside by Google, Expedia, Fandango, and other competitors.
The AOL decision has met with a surprising amount of consternation and questions from both readers and bloggers at the Huffington Post.
"I just visited the old-gang at HP and you would not believe the rise in deleted comments posted. AOL-Time Warner is shuting them down!," observed dinm76, a commentor at the Current TV site.
""Corporate takeovers bring out all the censorship paranoia on the left," Tim Graham, Director of Research for the conservative Media Research Center, told the Washington Times.
Thus far, I have witnessed no censorship here at the Huffington Post of any blog. I have seen, however, a dramatic uptick in the censorship of comments, usually from conservatives, at least on my own blog entries. I do not think, though, that this is a conspiracy to silence the Right.
This may be due to the continued tweaking of their software. The Huffington Post uses a screening program called "JuLiA" that "reads" 75% of the more than 40 million submissions. Often what it considers acceptable is not, and what it finds unacceptable, is often innocuous.
There are times when, if Sarah Palin says "No one is going to shut me up," and you quote it, you may raise JuLiA's digital blood pressure to high enough levels to get your comment banned, even if you didn't say anything inflammatory.
Macgregor Thomson, Ombudsman for the Huffington Post, has communicated that JuLiA's filtering monitors are an ongoing work-in-progress. They are taking examples of the system's failings and using them to refine the program.
One other change in policy recently seems more related to keeping company with corporate ownership. Many of us who have edited professionally for a decade or more had been accorded the distinct privilege by the Huffington Post's editorial team of self-publishing our work. That mysteriously disappeared one day without explanation. After three tries to get an explanation, I was able to get an blog team member to tell me of the change in editorial policy that came about three weeks before the AOL announcement. No potential wild-card editing in the corporate world.
It is the addition to the Huffington Post of AOL's more questionable web acquisitions and spin-offs from the old Time-Warner days that is more of an issue.
"The HuffPost blog team will continue to operate as it always has. Arianna will become editor-in-chief not only of HuffPost but of the newly formed Huffington Post Media Group, which will include all of AOL's content sites, including Patch, Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, PopEater, MapQuest, Black Voices, and Moviefone.
Putting AOL's automobile chat site, MapQuest, and Moviefone into the Huffington Post operations just seems to further stray away from the original mission of developing a strong voice for progressive opinion to counter the massive sway of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News unit and its Roger Ailes-led extremist Conservative agenda.
One of the content changes which was visible to the reader during the lead-up to this merger was a dramatic increase in sensationalist headlines and celebrity news. A story doesn't generally find its way to the Entertainment page these days unless an actress is posing semi-nude, divorcing her husband, fighting with the paparazzi, or a combination of all of them. We see a lot more shark attacks, and other sensationalist stories a-la Fox News.
Another evolving change has been publishing for pedigree. The Huffington Post has always been a fascinating mix of celebrities, politicians, leading intellectuals, and writers of every stripe. Publications used to float more by the content of their pages, not the name label on the top, or the catchy headline.
The name of the game here is more clicks, though, so anything that will get a rise out of readers seems to be a good thing.
Mr. Olbermann, by contrast, departs the General Electric, and soon-to-be Comcast-controlled MSNBC to arrive at Current TV, a project spearheaded by former Vice President Al Gore.
"In a world where there are fewer and fewer opportunities to hear truly distinct, unfettered voices on television, we are delighted to provide Olbermann with the independent platform and freedom that Current can and does uniquely offer," said Al Gore, Chairman and Co-Founder of Current Media.
Olbermann will not only host his own show akin to his "Countdown" but he will serve as the company's Chief News Officer. He will also have an equity stake in Current Media. It is truly the ideal platform not only for Keith, but hopefully for the future refugees of MSNBC who will be looking for homes as Comcast quietly returns this unit of their conglomerate to its humble beginnings as a CNN afterthought.
It will be exciting to see what Olbermann brings to television at a company so well tailored to his fiery independence. People laughed when he went to MSNBC. Look at that network now.
Will the HuffPo become another AOL disaster like Moviefone or Mapquest? I hope not, but when you have corporate masters of the kind that is America Online, a leash can be both a lead, and a tool of discipline.
I would like to see Arianna Huffington be crazy like a fox, as Keith Olbermann seems to be, not turn the Huffington Post into a liberal news outlet as crazy as right-wing Fox.
My shiny two.