It's a scoop related to pop culture and primetime television, so the source should be no surprise. Michael Ausiello is reporting that Arianna Huffington will be the next guest to join the ensemble cast of How I Met Your Mother for an episode later this spring. Ausiello also tragically noted that she won't be the titular Mother that Josh Radnor's Ted has been boring his kids with for years (although it would new a great TV moment if she ends up as the next conquest of Neil Patrick Harris's Barney). (more...)

Eric Massa's tour de 'tickle' hour with Glenn Beck last night has left the host with some unlikely bedfellows (no pun intended!). While, one can only imagine the enjoyment of Rahm Emanuel as it became clearer and clearer that actually, Massa had no intention of accusing the Dems of coercion and conspiracy, an equally unlikely ally voiced her support on Anderson Cooper last night. (more...)

After releasing a pretty inclusive list of the Top 25 Right-Wing Journalists in America, Daily Beast columnist Tunku Varadarajan took on the other half of the aisle, putting together a list of the most powerful and influential American liberals. In many ways, The Top 25 Left-Wing Journalists list is much more eclectic than it's conservative counterpart, and includes a much larger number of personalities that toe the line between entertainers/commentators and journalists-- many, in fact, that are solidly in the entertainment or commentary camp. (more...)

Apparently newspapers of the world should seriously be considering adding bikini slide shows to their online offerings: The Huffington Post recently passed the Washington Post, the LA Times and the Wall Street Journal in number of readers. Pronouncements like this -- Gawker made a splash in September when they announced their traffic trumped that of the beleaguered LAT -- are likely not quite as surprising as they would have been even a year ago; still it's a phenomenal feat (or a terrifying one, depending!) considering HuffPo is not yet five years old. Below Paul Berry explains some of the science behind HuffPo's huge traffic gains (via a panel at last week's Webtrends event in New Orleans) and how the site's ability to "see how they are doing on an hourly basis" is directly applied to content: (more...)

video Is Arianna Huffington vs. Glenn Beck the new Keith Olbermann vs. Bill O'Reilly, or perhaps even the new Andrew Breitbart vs. Media Matters (and a whole bunch of other people depending on the day and the Twitter)? Huffington is certainly taking advantage of every available opportunity to direct attention to what she describes as Beck's "dangerous" language. This Sunday on Reliable Sources Huffington described Beck to host Howie Kurtz and fellow panelist Hugh Hewitt thusly: (more...)

your moment of glenn Glenn Beck may want to consider some sort of future career as a professor...he's very good with the pointer stick. Beck set aside a segment of tonight's show to specifically address the remarks Arianna Huffington made to Roger Ailes on this Sunday's This Week. (Actually he began with a fun lesson ratings: "how can you kill something that's already dead?" SNAP). During the panel segment of This Week Huffington decried the language Beck uses on his show and asked Ailes whether he isn't “concerned about the language that Glenn Beck is using, which is, after all, inciting the American people?” (Short answer: no.) One of the phrases that particularly bothered Huffington -- "slaughtered" which she seems to understand as the slaughtering of actual people -- came from this quote from Beck from a show that aired back in November. (more...)

video It was a news-making This Week on ABC today, as Barbara Walters took the helm for not just Scott Brown's first big sit-down but an epic roundtable from around the political spectrum. The two stand-out guests - CEO and President of Fox News Roger Ailes making his first appearance ever on This Week and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington. (more...)

Air America has folded — again, but, it seems, permanently. Two dominant reactions seem to have emerged: Disappointment that a liberal, progressive radio empire couldn't make it, and an utter lack of surprise. The LAT's James Rainey blamed Air America's failure on "Bad radio. Boring radio. Preachy radio"; as the NYT's Brian Stelter noted, Daily Kos founder and hyper-liberal Markos Moulitsas responded with “Air America was still really on the air?” However saddened people are by the loss of the flagship liberal bastion, it doesn't sound like anyone actually listened. But that doesn't mean there isn't a place for a liberal radio juggernaut — just maybe not on the radio. And that's where HuffPo comes in. (more...)

video Saturday Night Live has briefly touched on impressions of Rachel Maddow and Arianna Huffington. But with last night's third season premiere of Tracey Ullman's State of the Union on Showtime, we finally got an answer to the question - what would happen if Maddow, Huffington, Meghan McCain, Christiane Amanpour and Rep. Barney Frank all hung out in a make-up room? (more...)

At the end of last year, Arianna Huffington and friends urged Americans to make moving their money to small, community banks a New Year's resolution. Now, it appears that resolution has been televised, as Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made a similar recommendation at yesterday's White House briefing. This is a big win for blogs, but what about those poor, too-big-to-fail banks? (more...)

I'm not the only one who has noticed The Huffington Post's march toward trashy headlines, but usually, these are confined to gossip or entertainment items that scream things like "WATCH: Nazareth Man Gets Totally CRUCIFIED!"

Now, it seems even HuffPo's enviro-conscious "Green" section has succumbed to this condition with the blunt entreaty to "WATCH: Walrus Gives Himself Oral Pleasure (NSFW)"

My first response is "Why would I want to do that?" Still, I understand the curiosity at work here. Perhaps we have our first definitive translation of the phrase "Coo coo ca choo."

I'm obviously familiar with the concept of a grabby headline. It's just that the sheer volume of these blunt, shouting headlines to hype even the most minute items have a deadening effect. They also undercut Arianna Huffington's recent high-minded entreaty to ignore stories like the Balloon Boy fiasco in favor of stories about homeless children. If they ran any such stories at HuffPo, they'd be under a banner like "WATCH: Kids Sleep in Things That are NOT HOUSES!"

For those of you who really want to see a walrus getting to know itself, I guess I'd rather have you watch it here than someplace else. Enjoy?

Well, this is a surprise! Dan Abrams, who just so happens to be Mediaite's founder, won FishbowlNY's "most influential media person of 2009" poll.

Abrams came in at 34% of the vote, followed by Rupert Murdoch at 21% and Arianna Huffington at 15%. Simple arithmetic would seem to indicate that that means that he is just slightly less influential than Rupert Murdoch and Arianna Huffington combined. Maybe next year ...

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The year 2009 had many media bright spots, break-out stars, dominating networks and game-changing technologies.  The Mediaite 50 collects the finest, most exemplary innovators and influencers of the year, defining a media moment in time and setting the agenda as we move forward. (more...)

It's very easy to dismiss today's journalists as high maintenance and pampered celebrity pundits, unworthy descendants of their beloved and revered Walter Cronkite. And you'd be right in most enough cases. You can blame it on their network bosses and corporate owners, who have reduced much of the "news" to easily digestible distraction nuggets for a woefully uninformed public.

But as much energy as I spend turning off my TV in disgust these days, I'm equally in awe of those who use the airwaves for good, building our understanding of a topic and sometimes even, sorry, advocacy. Good TV, as rare and oxymoronic as that may sound, can produce some of the best narrative to our world. And no matter how much more I consume online, in magazines or books, I'm still a boob tube kid.

So with the holiday festivities bringing us all around TV sets (sorry, Hulu and video streaming) in the coming weeks, this is a good time to celebrate some of the best and brightest we have at camera one. In no particular order, my 2009 media heroes: (more...)

It's no secret that grown-ups love the Harry Potter series almost as much as kids - maybe even more, based on certain grown-up references that the average 12-year-old can't quite yet appreciate. More to the point, by this time a whole bunch of Harry Potter fans who were once kids, back when the book came out, are now all grown up. Either way, that means a whole lot of us at Mediaite are unashamed, unabashed Harry Potter fans. After its worldwide record-breaking weekend (which a few of us contributed to), we got to talking about certain parallels between the magical land of Hogwarts and the equally magical land of headlines, bylines, cutlines, chyrons, blog pickup and declining ad pages. Turns out, the two have a lot in common! Before we knew it, we were shouting out names of media muggles like Hermione answering a pop quiz. After careful (and nerdily meticulous) consideration, we've come up with a few examples for you. (We like to think of the Power Grid as our own little version of the Marauder's Map.) Here below, for your edification and enjoyment, is our own version - let's call it "Harry Potter and the Media Muggles." Mischief managed!

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Earlier today, Mediaite's Glynnis MacNicol reported on a new Rasmussen poll that indicates that while 44% of adults (although they never do get to how the children would vote) say they would vote to re-elect President Obama were the election held today, 49% say they would not. She correctly notes that the poll doesn't consider a hypothetical opponent, or other variables. (more...)

So yes. As the saying goes, what a difference a year makes. Twelve months after the momentous election of Barack Obama as the nation's 44th president, a poll shows that were the election to be held today Obama might not be so successful. (more...)

video Rush Limbaugh's interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday, during which he criticized President Obama's "out of this world ego" and described the president as "immature," "inexperienced," and "in over his head" is still making waves. On Joy Behar's HLN show last night both Arianna Huffington and The Nation's Katrina Vanden Heuvel weighed in on the interview, which Vanden Heuvel described as 'sycophantic': (more...)

Hey sports fans! The Huffington Post is set to debut their HuffPo Sports section next month, but today they've got a preview for you. Do you like sports? Do you like page views hot women voting for things? Then check out their new Red Sox-Yankees related post. (more...)

VIDEO Long before The Daily Show, long before The Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live was making fun of the news in a way that no one had ever seen before. Suddenly, establishment journalists like Barbara Walters were fair game. Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd riffed on the seething hostility between co-anchors. Heck, they even took on the 70s trend of sign language interpreters popping up in newscasts. Oprah, Dateline, Geraldo Rivera... SNL's had distinctive takes on almost every major media presence over the years. And SNL's news spoofs aren't just entertainment: it's arguable that more Americans made up their minds about Sarah Palin based on SNL's Katie Couric/Sarah Palin interview than on the original interview itself. Stephen Colbert and John Stewart have done a lot in the news satire biz, but they still have some catching up to do. In honor of the premiere of season 35 of SNL, we've pulled together 35 of SNL's choicest news anchor spoofs and Weekend Updates, spanning all seasons. Shoot us a comment or a tip if you think we've missed a good one. We're seriously counting on a good Glenn Beck skit... Here it is. (more...)

Mediaweek has released their annual list of "executives who help the Rupert Murdochs and Martin Sorrells and Mark Zuckerbergs get on those 'power lists' in more celebrity-focused titles." The Mediaweek 50 span the range of industries and job titles - here are five of the most interesting selections: (more...)

Sad, successful, middle-aged women of the world unite! Or something. Last week Arianna Huffington, who is lately giving Google a run for its money in the Internet dominance dept., introduced a new column written by one Markus Buckingham, that aims to help women with their "sadness" (whether or not women knew they were sad prior to reading this is another question entirely). (more...)

Andrew Breitbart's new political blog, Big Government, launched with a splash today, thanks to an investigative piece on ACORN. Could Breitbart, who worked as a researcher for Arianna Huffington back in the day, be following in her footsteps as an opinion blog rainmaker with a powerful one-stop shop? (more...)

Give Arianna Huffington some credit: she still knows how to surprise people. When her personal friend (and former gubernatorial campaign adviser) Van Jones was ousted from his White House job after Glenn Beck's incessant needling, it would have been the easy move for Huffington to decry the firing and jump reflexively on the Glenn Beck hate train. Instead, Huffington thanked Beck in a recent Huffington Post column. But why? (more...)

Where were you a year ago today? If you are a political journalist — or media hanger-on — chances are you were living out of a suitcase at the 2008 Presidential Conventions, with the Dems nominating Barack Obama in Denver and the GOP nominating John McCain in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Remember those heady days? (more...)

There is nothing populist about Vanity Fair's annual top 100 Information Age powers list -- it is brazen in its celebration of the worldwide corporate aristocracy. But what can we say, we're suckers for power rankings. Still, the VF list occasionally confuses wealth and excess with actual power or influence. (One category in certain entries is simply "Crib" and runs down details of the glitterati's domiciles.) But as the media's old guard works on curbing its exorbitance in the midst of a shifting economic realities and technological innovation, is there any room on the list for the Elite Media? (more...)

This morning the Huffington Post and Facebook rolled out their latest scheme to take over the Internet: HuffPost Social News, which allows Facebook-using HuffPo readers to share the stories they're reading and the comments their leaving on the Huffington Post with their friends on Facebook. (more...)

For as long as the Power Grid has been around, The New York Times' Bill Keller has owned the Newspaper/Online Editors category. It's no surprise why -- despite the Times' financial and existential troubles, it remains the most influential newspaper in print, regularly breaking big stories and shaping the debate. It follows that the Times' top editor should be the top editor in the business. (more...)

Want to protect yourself from Swine Flu? A deep-cleansing enema might be you best option -- that is, if you get your health advice from Arianna Huffington's network of friends/bloggers. According to HuffPo blogger Kim Evans:

t's my understanding that many people who took regular enemas instead of vaccines during the 1918 pandemic made it out on the other side as well ... That said, my opinion is that the most effective cleanses involve enemas or colonics to get in there and physically clean out the filth.

This is just one piece of HuffPo "health advice" scrutinized by Salon’s Vital Signs columnist Rahul K. Parikh yesterday in “The Huffington Post is crazy about your health.” In addition to disapproving of this method of flu prevention ("This is not exactly first-line advice on influenza prevention...Evans' notion contradicts basic germ theory"), he isn't a fan of much else in the way of HuffPo's health content.  Parikh takes a close, critical look at the site's Living section, and notices that: (more...)

Recent Colorado College graduate Ethan Axelrod - who just happens to be the son of David Axelrod, longtime advisor, strategist and right-hand man to President Barack Obama - has been hired by the Huffington Post. Axelrod started yesterday as the editor of the Denver local vertical at HuffPo, reports Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post. (more...)

First she scooped up columnist Dan Froomkin, shortly after his controversial firing from the Washington Post. Now Arianna Huffington appears to be buying herself one step closer to DC legitimacy with WaPo evacuee, Jose Antonio Vargas.

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What's a down-on-his-luck media professional like Anderson Cooper have to do to make ends meet? What about Arianna Huffington, who's out there trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents everyday on the internet?  Looks like somebody's going to have to work two jobs. Lucky for them rambling on behind a podium pays pretty well  -- $75,000+ for Anderson. (more...)

We here at Mediaite understand one universal truth about all media strategies — sex sells. Every so often (read: every day) we notice how some of our friends across the Internet use sexy headlines and photos to drive traffic. And what better way to celebrate these recession-busting decisions than in a regular feature? Welcome to SEX WATCH!  (more...)

Perhaps you've noticed our Power Grid, wherein we rank a whole bunch of media people based on an algorithm that uses metrics like circulation, online buzz, and hair cuts (kidding!), though Twitter followers are a category (it's the new PR!). (more...)

HuffPo may dominate the blogosphere but it appears they are aiming to dominate the Beltway-sphere also. Salon's Glenn Greenwald is reporting that HuffPo has hired recently fired Washington Post blogger Dan Froomkin to be its Washington Bureau Chief and regular columnist/blogger. (more...)

It's sex. Sex sells! This is not news. Newly installed HuffPo CEO Eric Hippeau says the company could be making money "if it wanted to." But for the time being it looks like they might be sticking to what one could feasibly refer to as the 2.0 version of the world's oldest profession. Per Simon Dumenco's second AdAge column calling Arianna Huffington to task for thriving on the dying beast that is mainstream media...and referring to it as journalism: (more...)

Arianna Huffington had this to say to Howie Kurtz about Amanda Hess' much-remarked upon Washington City Paper piece regarding HuffPo's proclivity for promoting celebrity flesh. Per Kurt's article in today's Post: (more...)

Alas, this has not been ripped straight from the pages of The Onion. More than two months after the Washington City Paper published an April Fool's Day parody of the Huffington Post homepage HuffPo has decided to retaliate! (more...)