Weigel

The NYT-HuffPo Slapfest is Getting Stupider

This isn’t normally on my beat, but as someone who enjoys/envys the scoops of HuffPo and NYT reporters, I wonder why Andrew Goldman would conduct this sort of interview with Arianna Huffington. Goldman’s in bold.

I think that hiring a slew of traditional journalists seems counter to the model that made buying you appealing to AOL .
We already had 148 journalists on payroll at The Huffington Post. I don’t know how you can say that.

I look at your writers much less than I find myself clicking on stuff that’s been aggregated or the more salacious, boob-related posts.
That’s really a shame. I think you’re missing out. Jason Linkins is doing some of the best media writing. Amanda Terkel’s coverage of Afghanistan has been ahead of the curve. Shahien Nasiripour has been breaking news constantly on Wall Street reform. Maybe you should be reading more of that and clicking less on the boobs.

So after being reminded that HuffPo has a ton of reporters, Goldman’s response is… he doesn’t read them? That’s just embarrassing. Anyway, let me click over to the NYT’s politics blog to see how badly its reporters are outgunning HuffPo.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that eagle-eyed Internet users noticed that TimKaine.com had been bought, reportedly by a man in Virginia , and redirected to the official site of the Virginia attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli — very much a conservative Republican. Now, though, it points in the other direction. Clicking on the link redirects visitors to the official home page of the Communist Party of the United States.

Journalism! Take that, 148 HuffPo reporters!