What Huffington Post Means for Journalism's Future

Ann Althouse and William Jacobson have initial, snarky reactions to the news of AOL's $350 million purchase of Huffington Post (here and here).

My first reaction was complete non-surprise. In the online world, few media entrepreneurs have been as savvy as Arianna Huffington. And while it may take a while, the HuffPo deal will serve as a powerful consolidation of progressive media operations in the increasingly digital news industry. What's especially interesting about this is Arianna's the ultimate personification of the left's hypocritical socialist elite. Not only do progressives like Arianna love money --- lots of it --- they love telling other people what they should do with theirs. When the Mayhill Fowler story broke in 2008 --- Fowler first reported Barack Obama's "clinging to their guns and religion" comments at a ritzy San Francisco fundraiser --- Huffington was vacationing on a yacht in Tahiti. Progressive eviscerated Mayhill Fowler for her reporting, especially since the media's establishment Obama-enablers would have bottled up that juicy "clinging" tidbit. Expect more of such distortions as big media giants consolidate. The media industry already tilts heavily left, so conservatives will continue to battle the progressive narrative (recall the left's coverage of campaign 2008, for example). What's interesting is how well the HuffPo deal is being welcomed by progressives. Matthew Yglesias writes, "I continue to be an optimist about the Internet and the news." And check David Dayen, at the communist Firedoglake:

I probably have a very unusual view of things, but pretty much everything I read on Huffington Post comes from their original reporting wing, and they have a growing staff in that department delivering very strong content. It’s good for progressive media in general to see a business model thriving, and while there are concerns about a general flattening of the online space that’s already happening, and this at least plants a flag on the left side.

RELATED: From former Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman, "The Huffington Post and AOL: 'Going There' Goes Global."