Here’s a fun game. Which of these side bars is from People magazine, which is from celebrity site the Superficial, and which is from the Huffington Post?
Granted- the fonts and color schemes are different.
by John Cole| 63 Comments
This post is in: Media, I Smell a Pulitzer!
Comments are closed.
[…] Post or The Superficial? You make the call. –Dante […]
MysticalChick
Hard to tell sometimes, isn’t it?
Punchy
Anna Torv REALLY needs to move her hands.
4tehlulz
How is Jennifer Aniston in a bikini NSFW?
birthmarker
You are just too funny, John! They are front paging some nonsense now. I didn’t even bother to click through. HP is like a bad boyfriend that I haven’t completely given up on yet, but I am trying.
licensed to kill time
Jesus making out with Madonna is just wrong. It’s your mother for God’s sake!
The Raven
Somehow, I think the one with Simon Johnson & John Edwards is from HuffPo.
cat48
HuffDrudge always has an Obama FAIL story “Obama Still Doesn’t Get It” so this was easy.
ajr22
This has been going on for a long time. I can’t even go to huffpost anymore because it just reminds me of a left-wing drudge. The headlines have become pathetic. The entertainment page is disgusting. Stories with headlines like Is Lohan cutting again? turrible.
schrodinger's cat
I don’t like Huffpo, its too tabloidy for my taste and find Arianna Huffington beyond annoying, whenever she shows up on my TV, I turn it to mute. Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard.
Joe Lisboa
I’ve come to treat the front page of HuffPo the way I treat the trash-rags in the checkout line: as an interesting diversion while waiting for more important things to happen (purchasing my food and waiting for Balloon Juice to load respectively, of course).
The new-agey pseudomedical hooey that gets front-paged from time to time isn’t helping matters, either.
fordpowers
I LOVE the superficial and I don’t even like famous people.
1. huffpost
2. thesuperficial
3. people.
ok. i guess i like famous people a little bit. #quitjudgingme
General Winfield Stuck
So I guess I be fired as director of the BJ Superficial Department. Drat./
Joy
@schrodinger’s cat: I do the exact same thing. She drives me nuts. Where did her credibility come from, money?
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
“698 Comments” kind of gives it away, I think. Is this an official “bash the Huffington Post” thread? Don’t forget, John, there are ads for predatory multinational corporations on your sidebars, and I seem to remember seeing Pam Anderson’s boobs and mail order brides over there as well. Nevertheless, we appreciate the dearth of gossipy crap on this site.
El Tiburon
Boing!!!
I was here the day Balloon Juice quadrupled their viewership.
Seriously, the titillation on HuffPo does not bother me. It’s a nice diversion from all the politics I must admit.
And look, it’s on the sidebar so what is the damn harm.
But I don’t really read HuffPo anyway. I click on it to check their headline and to get a sense of what they think is newsworthy. Then I quickly scroll down for some T&A and inane gossip then go about my merry.
mr. whipple
Is this a trick kwestion?
mr. whipple
@schrodinger’s cat:
Tank yoooo.
demo woman
Huffington Post is trying to out drudge, drudge with their headlines. If I wanted to read misleading headlines, why not just go to Drudge. If I wanted Hollywood gossip, why not just go to TMZ.
CT Voter
“HuffDrudge”…perfect. I don’t know a lot about pop culture, so I’d probably flunk this, although I will admit that I googled John Mayer just to find out what he said in his Playboy interview, and man, it was like reliving the Joaquin Phoenix interview with David Letterman. Can you say clueless?
John Quixote
Who needs actual news and information when there is famous cleavage to gawk at?
demo woman
We have snow, the ice age is coming!
Bill E Pilgrim
It’s a trick question.
Those are all the same site, right?
Hob
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.): “Don’t forget”… huh? Do you really not understand the difference between ads created by other people, and gossip bullshit columns created by the site’s own staff?
schrodinger's cat
@mr. whipple: You are welcome! How have you been and how is your big orange kitteh?
CT Voter
@demo woman: And Drudge isn’t overloaded with boatloads of video clips like Huffpo is, so it’s actually faster to get the B.S. headlines from Drudge. Drudge: hate delivered more economically!
Tonal Crow
@Joy:
In part. But mostly because she flipped to progressivism from GOPage after her husband, a hard-right GOPer cozy with the Religious Right, was outed as gay. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianna_Huffington . She also ran for California governor. She once did real service for progressive causes, but her site has become increasingly tabloid, and it’s known for often publishing badly-misleading headlines (search the web for ‘misleading headline huffpo’ for examples).
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Why do you keep misspelling the name Puffington Ho’es?
schrodinger's cat
A dose of cute in anticipation of Valentine’s Day. All we need now is a photo of Tunch and Lily snorgling!
weaselswords
@licensed to kill time:
heheh, “for God’s sake”
BombIranForChrist
I have a special contempt for Huffington, and I am not sure why. I basically put her on the same level as Cheney, Bush, Country Music Since the 1980’s and Fat Free Ranch Dressing.
She’s just a bit of a grifter, isn’t she? People seem to forget that she was one of those people really, really obsessed with The Clenis … or, at least, she wants us to forget.
And now she has started a “blog” where she blasts the “main stream media”, while getting about 80% of her stuff from the “main stream media”. And she manages to get Hollywood assholes to write pointless and obvious little blog posts for free, while also hocking the latest bullshit Homeopathic cure …
I just really despise her. That’s a pretty strong feeling, but man, there are few in the political world who make me as angry as her.
norbizness
But she was great on Green Acres.
JK
@John Quixote:
“There was cleavage in the area!” – Jerry Seinfeld
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Punchy: Damn right. Wish John posted those kinds of articles once in a while. Gotta go Google Anna now.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Take your Valium, Hob. John himself apologized for the Pam Anderson thing.
mr. whipple
@schrodinger’s cat:
He’s got an eye infection, and is walking around looking like a pirate, but he’ll be ok. Tank yooo for askink.
HyperIon
@John Quixote:
Pat Lang agrees with you.
He’s reduced to posting naked pics of Catherine Deneuve.
Soon only the folks who fawn over the Colonel will be allowed to comment. He’s now banning anyone who fails to genuflect, er, I mean, salute.
schrodinger's cat
@mr. whipple: Aww poor fing, hope he feels better soon. I am sure he makes a dashing pirate!
licensed to kill time
@norbizness: Snort! I always think Gabor when I hear Arianna speak.
Comrade Dread
You know, I think it’s a great marketing idea, and if there’s not already a website, I call dibs on politicswithboobs.com
mr. whipple
@schrodinger’s cat:
It’s an ongoing thing, off and on. Some sort of herpes. That’s what you get for catting around.
Woodbuster
May I just say that I am eternally grateful for the tip that Anna Torv had a photo shoot in her undies? Tankuburymuch!
glasgowtremontaine
Alexander McQueen’s death is a major cultural loss, and anyone who thinks otherwise is plain ignorant. I’m just sayin.
burnspbesq
@BombIranForChrist:
Country music since the 1980s???
On behalf of Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash, Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss, Allison Moorer, Steve Earle, and several others, I’d like so say that you need to open your ears a bit, twerp.
asiangrrlMN
@licensed to kill time: You win. Hands down. Best comment. Thread over.
By the way, John Mayer tearfully apologized for his comments and said that he was trying to be clever. This is news? I don’t care. I have never heard of The Superficial, and I quit visiting HuffPo months ago .
@mr. whipple: Hope he feels better soon!
@glasgowtremontaine: Huh. I did not ever know who he was.
Platonicspoof
Easy.
One thread with 6000 comments = HuffPo.
How most commenters know whether or not they’re just repeating the same things is beyond me.
Rich Lowry
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.): Valium? Wha? I’m just trying to understand what your point is. The Pam Anderson thing was pretty awful, but it was an ad, which to me is still pretty different than if John had actually hired people to create that shit and put it on the site.
I mean, all the weekly papers I’ve ever seen, both good & bad ones, get much of their revenue from a ton of sex ads. That doesn’t affect what I think of their reporters & editors. But if one of them started a front-page section where the editors wrote about their own favorite hookers, that would be a little odd.
Ana Gama
@birthmarker:
OMG! I am relieved to know I am not the only one who feels that way!
gogol's wife
What made me quit Huffington Post were all the animal abuse stories. Always on the right side, toward the bottom (usually with pictures). It’s just like local 11:00 PM newscasts–disgusting sensationalism. But I still go to HuffPo for Chris Kelly. I just keep my eyes averted from the right side.
PanAmerican
TMZ’s political page looks like straight news compared to the Huffers Post.
The difference? Arianna is an asshole and Harvey’s not.
Midnight Marauder
@El Tiburon:
Because the sidebar doesn’t feature articles that run in prominent spaces on the website? I mean, Simon Johnson’s “OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT” was a front page story, if I remember correctly. So I get what you’re trying to say here, but it’s wrong.
Edit: But I’m sure Obama totally wouldn’t get what you’re saying.
DougJ
The only part of the Jon Mayer that bothered me was when he claimed a hood pass like Justin Timberlake and Hall & Oates. If you’re gonna give Jon Mayer one, you may as well give one to Dan Fogelberg.
Remember November
It’s a guilty pleasure, but Arianna seems to be suffering survivor’s guilt. She is a neo-liberal, and yet there are occasional lucid moments in between her Guest Appearances.
Nick
I never take political advice from a website who had front page stories this morning about Kourtney Kardashian tasting her own breast milk and vegetables that look like penises.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
John himself felt bad about it, but he explained what happened and it was all good. Point is, when you click into a website and see advertising of various sorts you can legitimately wonder what the operator’s priorities are. Further point being, Huffington apparently sees gossipy crap as part of their revenue model, just as John sees Blackberry and Amazon and god knows what else as part of his. Well, to me it seems equally possible to ignore the Hollywood stuff on Huffington and the advertising on Balloon Juice and just proceed to the material that is of interest.
Having said all that, I myself almost never go to Huffington.
Comrade Kevin
Right now the HuffPo have a screaming headline at the top that says “THE DEAL THAT SCARRED OBAMA’S CREDIBILITY”. No, I don’t know what the article is about, and I refuse to click through to find out.
Nick
@Comrade Kevin: It’s the Pharma deal…I don’t know why they decided to do a story on that, I guess cause Tauzin stepped down.
Deschanel
Agreeing with Glasgotremontaine immensely, the death by suicide of Alexander McQueen yesterday is in no way superficial fluff news. It’s a real tragedy, and a real shock. I don’t care if you don’t like fashion, his imagery and imagination made its way into a great deal of pop culture in the last 15 years. And for someone so talented and well-known to die by his own hand at the age of 40 isn’t fluff, it’s a horror. And it’s news.
And in the wake of that horror, people sneering about how they hate fashion, never heard of him, so what, who cares. Great. If you had never heard of Alexander McQueen in the past 15 years, please do not consider yourself a cultured or worldly person. Thanks for piping up with “Who? Never heard of him.” Sort of proud of that. Kind of mean-spirited and dumb.
Mary
Arianna Huffington is Jane Hamsher on steroids and she should be bashed for the malaise she causes in the electorate. She is absolutely toxic to the Democrats and the Obama Administration. She’s worse than Drudge because people think she’s on the side of the left. Her screeching headline today about the Pharma deal is straight off the GOP wishlist, as are most of her headlines.
I wish BJ could make it a mission to expose the problems with the Huffington Post like they’ve done for some other egregious sites. It would be a goldmine of material, for sure. Misleading headlines, experts conjured out of thin air, giving editorial space tobthe likes of Tony Blankley…
goatchowder
Is it sweeps week?
eastriver
I’m a little late on commenting on this (like anyone cares), but I’ve been rather struck over the past few weeks how HuffPo has been sliding into a steamy tabloidal swamp. When Ariana’s not POSTING about one of her tedious media appearances, she’s teasing NSFW bikini layouts and full-frontal male nudity.
Remember when HuffPo was kinda cutting edge? ‘Member? No? Not really? Me neither.
Meh.
Ray Radlein
HuffPo is the anti-Playboy: “I only read it for the nudie pictures.”
sevenseasofcheese
Huffingtonpost is not only veering towards pure unadulterated tabloid, their articles and readers are also incredibly racist against Asian people. They buy into that whole hipster racism, which deems it okay to be racist or hateful towards certain groups, as long as you say you’re being ironic or satirical, despite the fact that they are being neither.