A great number of people are flying their flags at half mast in the wake of the Aol-HuffPo merger/acquisition.
Word is that the phenomenon that Arianna Huffington and partner Kenny Lerer created in 2005 of a web newspaper featuring progressive, fair, and liberal journalism--a place for legitimate investigation of issues and commentary-- has been killed, even massacred, by this 315million-dollar deal.
Not only do thousands of comments on HuffPo and AOL reflect much mournful, angry despair in response to the deal. Many other news sites offer interpretation and analysis with nary a whole-hearted positive outlook in sight. (With the notable exceptions of Arianna, Kenny Lerer, Eric Hippeau , and Howard Fineman, senior political editor of HuffPost, as well as a smattering of people I will call "optimistic wait-and-seers").
Certainly, there are legitimate fears that all progressives have about conservative AOL sharing the power that could potentially impact content, censorship, and freedom of speech which we all enjoyed on HuffingtonPost. Absolutely, there are loads of people who know more than I do about the evils of corporate America, as well as the inner-workings of AOL. I stand to be educated.
The forecast of doom, however, is about fear, perhaps even educated guesses, but fear it is and not yet actual fact.
My morning email from the health blog, Natural News, opened today with these fears broadcast as fact, a daily practice in American news reporting.
"The Huffington Post was sold to AOL for $315 million yesterday, meaning the site, which was once the darling of independent media, is now clearly positioned as institutionalized media".
On the other hand, a friend of mine also forwarded me the more even-toned NPR iPAD App: click here
This article explains how AOL benefits from the merger, and how HuffPost "gets access to a whole new audience".
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