HuffPost
The Huffington Post (often shortened to HuffPost or HuffPo) is a left-leaning political group weblog founded by Arianna Huffington. Begun on May 9, 2005, it is notable because of its early success and prominence as a dominantly leftist news and commentary outlet, and its feature of Huffington's network of prominent friends from various fields and viewpoints.
In addition to regular, almost-daily columns by Huffington and a core group of contributors (notably Harry Shearer, John Conyers), the HuffPost has featured notable celebrity contributors from politics, journalism, business, and entertainment, as well as other relative unknowns. Because of the prominence and access of its contributors, the HuffPost regularly publishes scoops of current news stories, otherwise providing links to selected prominent news stories, providing a left counterpoint to the link-heavy style of The Drudge Report. Compared to other left blogs like the expertise-heavy Znet or the long-established DailyKos, the HuffPost draws a balance between hard news commentary and celebrity opinion features.
The blog is considered leftist and primarily dominated by United States politics, but occasional "right-wing" views are featured. The general tenor of the blog has been strongly opposed to the continuing Iraq War.
Contributors
Celebrity bloggers include current or former politicians:
Prominent journalists & authors include:
- Larisa Alexandrovna
- Peter Bart
- Tina Brown
- Deepak Chopra
- Marc Cooper
- David Corn
- Danielle Crittenden
- Walter Cronkite
- Harold Evans
- Paul Feig
- David Frum
- Larry Gelbart
- Christopher Hitchens
- Nicholas von Hoffman
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson
- Michael Isikoff
- Simon Jenkins
- David Kirby
- Paul Krassner
- Roger Lowenstein
- Bill Maher
- Norman Mailer
- Irshad Manji
- Dennis Prager
- Roger L. Simon
- Tavis Smiley
- Tom Tomorrow
- Elizabeth Warren
- Lizz Winstead
- Byron York
Among the actors, directors, and producers featured have been
- Lawrence Bender
- Bruce Cohen
- John Cusack
- Larry David
- Ellen DeGeneres
- Sandy Frank
- Al Franken
- Robert Greenwald
- Christopher Guest
- Brad Hall
- Marshall Herskovitz
- Quincy Jones
- Diane Keaton
- Christine Lahti
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus
- David Mamet
- Adam McKay
- Mike Nichols
- Rob Reiner
- Tim Robbins
- Haim Saban
- Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
- Harry Shearer
- Russell Simmons
Business people featured include:
Others include:
- James Boyce
- Kristen Breitweiser
- Richard Dawkins
- Stephen Elliott
- Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
- Marty Kaplan
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- David Rees
- Cindy Sheehan
- Josh Silver
- David Sirota
- Andy Stern
- Eugene Volokh
- John Zogby
- Chelsea Peretti
- Jay Rosen
- Gene Stone
- Gara LaMarche
- Mark Joseph
- Michelle Pilecki
- Carl Pope
- Sarah Stillman
- Alan Dershowitz
- Russell Shaw
- Cenk Uygur
- Hooman Majd
- Ted Poe
- Tom Watson
- Jerry and Joe Long
- Seth Greenland
- Greg Gutfeld
- Margaret Carlson
- Thomas de Zengotita
- Paul Rieckhoff
- Jesse Kornbluth
- Andrei Cherny
- Andrea Batista Schlesinger
- Stephanie Sandberg
- Joseph Nye
- Richard Bradley
- Jim Moore
- George Lakoff
Advance publicity claimed forthcoming articles from:
- Warren Beatty
- Tony Blankley
- Andrew Breitbart
- Albert Brooks
- Barry Diller
- Ari Emanuel
- Nora Ephron
- James Fallows
- Tom Freston
- David Geffen
- Paul Goldberger
- Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
- Alex Keyssar
- Kenneth B. Lerer
- Michael Medved
- Gwyneth Paltrow
- Paul Reiser
- David O. Russell
- Liev Schreiber
- Aaron Sorkin
- Jann Wenner
- Jim Wiatt
- Mort Zuckerman
Criticism
Critics have claimed that Huffington has "missed the point" of a blog, as an outlet for unknowns, claiming celebrities already have many venues through which to express their opinions.
Within two days of the Huffington Post's inception, a parody site named Huffington's Toast was established by a group of conservative bloggers. The site accurately imitates the HuffPost's appearance, and its authors pretend that they are various celebrities and political figures, each accompanied by a humorous picture.