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Media Notes: Arianna's Blog-tastic Ride, etc., etc.*
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2205 Reads
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 UPDATE BELOW
If hype were surf, megapundit and onetime Ahnold-foe Arianna Huffington would have a permanent residence in the green room thanks to the standing wave of buzz bearing up her embryonic group celebri-blog the Huffington Post.
Today, the New York Times' Kit Seelye listed a cerebrally mouthwatering roster of left-of-center names promised to be posting there when the much-touted antidote- to- Drudge- and- Fox finally launches on May 9:
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Among those signed up to contribute are Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer and Mortimer B. Zuckerman.
"This gives me a chance to sound off with a few words or a long editorial," said Mr. Cronkite, 88, the longtime "CBS Evening News" anchorman. "It's a medium that is new and interesting, and I thought I'd have some fun." I think most of us of a certain age would love to hear Mr. Cronkite opine on anything, but he's going to be blogging, and there's no indication of whether he'll be among the Huffingtonians who are gutsy enough to face their critics ...
Another trick will be balancing the bloggers' ability to put forth their ideas with their desire for protection from abusive comments. Jonah Peretti, who is overseeing the site's technology, said the bloggers would decide for themselves whether to engage with readers. "It's something we'll experiment with," he said. "We want to make sure there's a productive, interesting dialogue and not just people ranting." Whether or not Big Names equal compelling blogging is of course, another matter. With the exception of journalists like Cronkite and word-factories like Mailer, not everyone has the gumption or drive to come up with something new, original and compelling to say about current affairs on a weekly, let alone daily basis.
None of this seems to have fazed Huffington: As if staring down the right-wing media hegemony weren't enough, she has also managed to strike a syndication deal for some of the site's content with Tribune Media Services, which shares a parent company with the L.A. Times.
(Ironic footnote: Huffington has re-recruited her former researcher Andrew Breitbart, who until very recently was Drudge's web guy.)
In other Times-related news, exiled staff writer Eric Slater issued an open letter to friends and family today (spotted at LAObserved), insisting that his article on dangerous hazing rituals at Chico State was in no way made up and that he has no plans to sue the Times. It also gives a Kafkaesque account of his dismissal: On Monday, April 17, following a brief investigation, LA Times Managing Editor Dean Baquet told me that either I could resign or I would be fired. Because I could not reach my attorney at 8:30 a.m., I agreed to resign. I told Dean that I would meet with my counsel and draft a letter of resignation that I would file as soon as possible. Everyone agreed that was the way to proceed.
A few hours later, a reporter for another paper phoned me to ask for a comment on my resignation. The Times, this journalist said, was reporting that I had resigned. She was right. Before I was given time to write my letter of resignation, the LA Times was reporting to other journalists (and Dean confirmed this personally to me) that I had indeed resigned.
Following weeks of odd inquiries, thinly veiled threats about the impending ruin of my career, inappropriate questions about my health and personal life, I asked my attorney if I could retract my resignation. He encouraged me to do just that.
I did. The Times fired me. Additional Times-note: MediaBistro reported recently that Richard Rushfield has been named a senior editor at LATimes.com. He will remain a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.
UPDATE: The L.A. Times jumps on the Huffington Post story a day later.
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| Posted by: mack_reed on Monday, April 25, 2005 - 10:58 PM
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