On the occasion of the debut of mega website Huffington Post (nickname HuffPo), ash was forced to admit she was no longer as fond of its mistress of ceremonies, Arianna Huffington, while she continues to admire the Greek native’s ability to speak and write English more eloquently than most native English speakers. Also, it should be noted, Huffington belongs to that rare breed of converts from one political persuasion to another, and she took the correct direction on that continuum as far as ash is concerned.
But ash, a devout populist and anti-elitist, disdained the conceit of Huffington’s venture: inviting several hundred of her “closest friends” to post on any topic, no matter what and no matter how poorly written, as long as they happened to be a celebrity. With the word defined to include people you never heard of but hotshots in the nexus of entertainment and politics, trust me, my dear.
In ash’s opinion it’s quite the skewed criteria for which she judges Huffington accordingly. But because it was brand new and promised to afford a decidedly liberal perspective, ash began reading until, early on, she ran into a prohibitive percentage of opinion pieces offering no insight or literary talent – but aren’t those credentials impressive? – validating ash’s original distrust of the format, Here’s ash email to Arianna soon after the website’s launch:
Have you read any of the reviews? I’ve skimmed the opening paragraphs of some of the 20+ pages. In a word, overwhelming, or underwhelmed, depending on whether we’re talking quantity or quality.
It reminds me of a Mary Tyler Moore (has she been invited?) episode, before “women’s lib” became irrevocably meaningless, when Lou says to Mary, “You thought it would be cute, and original, and different to hire a woman to be the sports anchor.” And you’re so ensconced in your coastal, celebrity cocoon you really had no inkling?
So I think what I’m going to do, not to be cute, or original, and certainly not different, is to invite 300 Midwestern strangers (with extra credit for blue collar jobs and graduated bonus points the more humid the climate) to post on my new blog. They don’t have to be brilliant, they don’t have to be witty, they don’t have to be clever, though God knows they are strictly forbidden from being famous.
Yeah, I’m that pissed. You, my dear, have jumped the shark. The only question is how long until you realize it. Never, undoubtedly.