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April 06, 2005
Huffing, Puffing, and yawning?
Or is it time to get down to serious business? If you're confounded by the interminable ability of Arianna Huffington to annoy people and remain a celebrity, get ready: she's starting a "group blog": The Observer has learned that Warren Beatty, the 68-year-old actor and director, will likely join a lineup of liberal all-stars who will "group blog" on a Web site to be launched next month by columnist Arianna Huffington.This is not especially new. Huffington promoted a Beatty presidency in 2000. The problem was, neither Beatty nor his ideas were able to capture the public imagination: Though he's supposed to be a liberal icon, Beatty lacks the crystallizing vision of a Reagan. His politics are a muddle. It's not happenstance that he is backed by such an odd assortment of people, ranging from Republican populist Huffington to earnest liberal Bill Moyers. Beatty is not cynical: He desperately believes the political system is broken and needs fixing. He just seems unable to explain how it's broken and how it should be fixed.If you're interested in Beatty -- a big "if" I admit -- the whole thing is probably worth a read. And a yawn. Really now, am I supposed to take this seriously? Let us suppose for the sake of argument that I break with my habit, and take, um, Arianna Huffington, and, er, Warren Beatty, seriously. I remember when Arianna Huffington was a Republican. At least, she married a Republican who ran against Dianne Feinstein and lost and she divorced him and he "came out" or something. She didn't seem to have much to offer by way of principles then. And she doesn't now. But then, would it not be less than serious for me to expect principles? In politics? Isn't it like tar and water? Actually, that's either/or thinking -- a sort of moral absolutist position. Which is why I'm hesitant to take politics of any kind too seriously. (Good way to make a complete fool of yourself....) Still, I think there are degrees of lack of integrity. A smell test, if you will. And the Huffington kind of opportunism just doesn't pass mine. Even assuming all politicians are opportunists, there's something about changing political positions the way an actor might a wardrobe, calculating them for maximum flash and public attention, which turns me off completely. Sanctimonious moral posing is another thing which I'd rather ridicule than take seriously. I looked for Huffingtonreport.com and while the web site isn't up yet, here's the ownership information: Registrant:Peretti, it turns out, is famous! Jonah Peretti has already had his 15 minutes of fame. Last year, he ordered a pair of customizable Nikes online. He asked Nike to stitch the word "sweatshop" into them. Nike refused. Peretti and Nike exchanged a series of emails, which ended with Peretti's message: "I have decided to order the shoes with a different iD, but I would like to make one small request. Could you please send me a color snapshot of the 10-year-old Vietnamese girl who makes my shoes?"Gee, it never occurred to me that a "10-year-old Vietnamese girl" made my shoes. Can he be so sure? What about the poor lamb that got fleeced for my sweater? That's funny too! But perhaps Arianna is shaking down Nike by playing good cop/bad cop. Here she is, praising Nike for having moved to the cutting edge of environmentally conscious production techniques....Why, considering that they've mended their ways, might she even allow Nike to advertise on her group blog? Hey, being annoying isn't funny at all. It's serious business! posted by Eric on 04.06.05 at 07:24 AM
Comments
Bee: what Drudge said is true. It's dog eat dog both in an effort sense and a political/intellectual sense. My question is whether Arianna's blog will allow comments, and will her bloggers be able to handle the heat coming from intellectual criticisms or instead simply ban the commenters who submit them. The latter is what is cowardly, phoney, pathetic, and insecure. Already we see that Paretti does not understand wealth and its creation. J. Peden · April 6, 2005 12:14 PM I notice that Peretti, despite being sure that his shoes were made by a "10-year-old Vietnamese girl," bought them anyway. He's quite an activist. I suspect that Huffieblog will not be an Air America-style disaster, but only because a blog is much cheaper. byrd · April 6, 2005 04:25 PM Yes, Sludge is right about the dog-eat-dog bit, but to say that as a response to news of competition is pure empty chest-pounding bluster. As for comments, how open is Drudge to them? How well does he handle "the heat coming from intellectual criticisms?" Raging Bee · April 6, 2005 04:43 PM "'I probably will,' Mr. Beatty said, on the phone from his production office in Los Angeles. "The 'Huffington Report,' as Ms. Huffington has dubbed it, will also feature such boldface bloggers as Senator Jon Corzine, David Geffen, Viacom co-chief Tom Freston, Barry Diller, Tina Brown and Gwyneth Paltrow." My Catholic relatives were right: there is a hell. Sean Kinsell · April 6, 2005 11:03 PM Jonah Peretti had his 15 minutes of fame with Nike in early 2001; I had 15 seconds of it refuting his inane argument in a Mises.org piece, "Nike Is Right." Bill Stepp · April 25, 2005 12:52 PM |
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I'll just have to see how Huffie's blog goes. In the meantime, here's Matt Sludge's response to the news of competition: "This isn’t a dinner party, darling," he told the New York Observer. "This is the beast! This is the Internet beast, which is all-consuming, as anyone knows who works in this business."
What a cowardly, phony, pathetic, insecure jerk.