January 11, 2009 marks the launch of what the right wing internet has been anxiously awaiting: Tucker Carlson's The Daily Caller a.k.a. the conservative answer to The Huffington Post. Upon first glance, The D.C. (coincidence?) looks sharp and leads with a marquee story probably hoping to set the tone for the site. In a large, two-tone font: "The Gate Crasher: The Mysteries of Carlos Allen." But how's the online peanut gallery reacting? (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?

Esquire is teasing its upcoming December issue as a new "living, breathing, moving, talking magazine," using 3-D technology and augmented reality to integrate real images and graphics with both its articles and advertisements. With Robert Downey Jr. as its cover star, the issue (to be released November 9th) features six interactive "boxes" and at least one Lexus ad in which readers can use their computers to see bonus three-dimensional features. (more...)

Lindsay Lohan -- large and unedited. That's how The Huffington Post Entertainment section kicked off a new feature they call The Big Picture in which they "present unedited celebrity photos, blown up." The daily series, which launched quietly yesterday, is not unlike the popular Boston Globe blog of the same name, but with a slightly different focus. For instance, whereas the Globe features a month's worth of giant photos from Afghanistan, HuffPo opted for Lohan at the "Rock the Kasbah event Monday night in Los Angeles," followed by Sting from a Tuesday night book party. Guaranteed to drive web traffic, The Big Picture's first pic(k) was a savvy one, as a high resolution image of the starlet reveals far more than you'd expect from a 23-year-old. We're taking bets on who The Huffington Post will feature tomorrow, but our money's on a real looker, to counter Lohan's vaguely unflattering portrayal or Sting's neutral appearance. With this new feature, The Huffington Post wins with clicks, and the real losers are the makeup artists to the stars -- now under more pressure than ever. Check out The Big Picture here.

As online writing becomes increasingly a part of the mainstream dialogue in America, "blogger" is no longer a dirty word. Some of the best writers and reporters of our time operate exclusively on the internet, and millions regularly read their work. Matt Drudge, Arianna Huffington, even Perez Hilton; these are big, newsmaking names that many people have heard before.  (more...)

Just how effective is the right wing media at hijacking a topic, blasting controversial sound bites, and stirring widespread outrage, all without a shred of context, debate, or discussion of salient issues? Incredibly, as I found out the hard way. My intention was not to bait national controversy when I wrote a piece after Ted Kennedy’s death titled, "The Footnote Speaks: What Would Mary Jo Kopechne Have Thought of Ted's Career?" for The Huffington Post. The short editorial discussed Kennedy's accomplishments and the role Kopechne may have played in them, and speculated as to whether she would have felt that his singular career (made possible by his failure to serve jail time for her death) might be worth the injustice she suffered. (more...)