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AOL-Huffpo merger gives liberal media a huge, new platform
American Thinker ^ | 02/06/2011 | Rick Moran

Posted on 02/07/2011 7:49:01 AM PST by SeekAndFind

The AOL-Huffington Post merger destroys one media outlet that had plenty of conservative commentary and creates a potentially massive new liberal news portal that will reach as many as 100 million Americans a month.

New York Times:


The two companies completed the sale Sunday evening and announced the deal just after midnight on Monday. AOL will pay $315 million, $300 million of it in cash and the rest in stock. It will be the company's largest acquisition since it was separated from Time Warner in 2009.

The deal will allow AOL to greatly expand its news gathering and original content creation, areas that its chief executive, Tim Armstrong, views as vital to reversing a decade-long decline.

Arianna Huffington, the cable talk show pundit, author and doyenne of the political left, will take control of all of AOL's editorial content as president and editor in chief of a newly created Huffington Post Media Group. The arrangement will give her oversight not only of AOL's national, local and financial news operations, but also of the company's other media enterprises like MapQuest and Moviefone.

By handing so much control over to Ms. Huffington and making her a public face of the company, AOL, which has been seen as apolitical, risks losing its nonpartisan image. Ms. Huffington said her politics would have no bearing on how she ran the new business.

Ms. Huffington is one of the most aggressively partisan presences on the web, so her statement that "politics would have no bearing" on what appeared on the websites is a crock. Even if she's sincere, she doesn't know how to be non-partisan. In the 3 decades she has been commenting as a pundt, she has never once demonstrated one ounce of balance or even handedness in her take on the news. Why should anyone believe her now?

Every effort by conservatives to come up with a news portal to match Huffpo has failed. We better get busy. The left just got a big boost in connecting with the average American and with the 2012 elections coming up, you can expect they'll exploit this advantage for all that it's worth.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aol; huffingtonpost; media
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To: cripplecreek

“Freebie AOL discs made great driveway reflectors”

Great targets when I was still shootin’ my scoped 44 mag Ruger!

Arianna! The voice that turns men gay!


21 posted on 02/07/2011 8:10:47 AM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: cripplecreek

Great for skeet, as well...


22 posted on 02/07/2011 8:11:28 AM PST by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: Presbyterian Reporter
I encourage everyone to look at your email address book for friends with an AOL.com address.

Just because you have an aol.com address, it does not mean you have AOL as your ISP. AOL provides free email services.

23 posted on 02/07/2011 8:13:18 AM PST by SeeSac
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To: SeekAndFind
AOL-Huffpo merger gives liberal media a huge, new platform

Like all three major TV networks and most of print media is not a big enough platform?

24 posted on 02/07/2011 8:14:15 AM PST by JimRed (Excising a cancer before it kills us waters the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra
Arianna! The voice that turns men gay!

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
25 posted on 02/07/2011 8:15:21 AM PST by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: SeeSac

Why would a conservative even want a free AOL email address?


26 posted on 02/07/2011 8:15:21 AM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
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To: Red Badger

It’s all about who has the biggest platform.


27 posted on 02/07/2011 8:25:37 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: cripplecreek

BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!
Thanks for the outright guffaw!


28 posted on 02/07/2011 8:31:05 AM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: SeekAndFind

What is AOL’s business model? I thought they were an ISP, which is no longer needed. Are they just a homepage and IM service (for kiddies who don’t read political news)?


29 posted on 02/07/2011 8:38:12 AM PST by nhwingut (Palin '12... Accept No Other)
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To: nhwingut

Here is one summary of AOL’s business—

AOL Inc. operates as a Web services company that offers a suite of brands and offerings for the worldwide audience. Its business spans online content, products, and services for consumers, publishers, and advertisers. The company produces digital content and sells display advertising. AOL Inc. operates approximately 80 branded and content sites. Its content brands primarily include AOL.com, Moviefone, FanHouse, ParentDish, Asylum, Spinner, DailyFinance, BlackVoices, AOL Latino, PoliticsDaily, Engadget, WalletPop, MapQuest, and Patch.

The company also provides various consumer applications comprising communications products and services, such as mail, instant messaging, and a suite of mobile offerings.

In addition, AOL Inc. operates an advertising network in the United States, which focuses on building content for its consumers, as well as on providing products and services for its advertising and publishing partners. The company provides its online advertising services on its owned and operated properties, as well as on third-party Web sites.

It also offers Internet subscription access services, which serve as a distribution channel for the company’s consumer offerings in the United States.

In addition, AOL Inc. distributes its properties through agreements with original equipment manufacturers of computers, digital devices, and other consumer electronics, and broadband access providers and mobile carriers; toolbars, widgets, co-branded portals and Web sites, third-party Web sites, and social networks; and search engine marketing and search engine optimization distribution methods.

The company was formerly known as America Online, Inc. and changed its name to AOL Inc. in 2006. AOL Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in New York, New York. AOL Inc. operates independently of Time Warner Inc., as of December 04, 2009.


30 posted on 02/07/2011 8:50:18 AM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
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To: Presbyterian Reporter

AOL is currently trading at the bottom of its 52 week trading range. It has a market capitalization of $2.3 billion.

Last Trade: 21.80
52wk Range: 19.61 - 29.45
Market Cap: 2.33B


31 posted on 02/07/2011 8:54:18 AM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
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To: Presbyterian Reporter
Why would a conservative even want a free AOL email address?

Because it is free.

32 posted on 02/07/2011 9:35:57 AM PST by SeeSac
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To: SeekAndFind

We have been with aol forEVVVVer, just ‘cause we are lazy. This gives me the incentive to finally kick it to the curb.


33 posted on 02/07/2011 9:42:15 AM PST by 13Sisters76 ("It is amazing how many people mistake a certain hip snideness for sophistication. " Thos. Sowell)
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To: cripplecreek

I thank God every day for that fact.


34 posted on 02/08/2011 7:50:23 AM PST by Absolutely Nobama (Freedom is the freedom to say liberals are Idiots that aren't even all that Useful.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Content is king.

Their content sucks.

They will sink.


35 posted on 02/08/2011 8:11:21 AM PST by paulycy (Islamo-Marxism is Evil.)
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To: SeekAndFind
It's great news for Arianna, but no big win for liberalism.

It's like they added another big speaker to their Phil Spector "Wall of Sound."

The left's message problem is the content, not the volume.

36 posted on 02/08/2011 8:15:36 AM PST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Search “Bing” search engine for news and HuffPo results are given (also KOS!).

That’s the only reason it’s a news portal- the Left says it is.


37 posted on 02/08/2011 8:26:14 AM PST by mrsmith
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