Many readers of The Huffington Post were today shocked to find an blog entry written by none other than conservative activist Andrew Breitbart. The blog entry, entitled "NPR is Collateral Damage in Battle to Brand Tea Party," slams the "mainstream media" for allegedly attempting to paint the Tea Party as racist, while praising O'Keefe for his "big win" in exposing the media bias. The image of Breitbart as an author for The Huffington Post will be strange for millions to say the least, and may lead many to stop reading The Huffington Post all together. It would essentially be the equivalent of Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann being a featured blogger on The Drudge Report or The Weekly Standard.
It was not so long ago that The Huffington Post was known for its decidedly liberal slant. The "progressive" blog had previously run pieces which were very critical of Breitbart and his "journalistic" practices, but now Breitbart is evidently qualified to be a blogger for the media giant. Breitbart played a crucial role in the release of the infamous "Shirley Sherrod tapes," which appears to show the former Department of Agriculture official talking about how she discriminated against a white farmer in the past. After Breitbart released the edited clip of Sherrod's statements an unedited clip subsequently showed that her comments were taken out-of-context, and that she had helped the white farmer in question. Even after the full video was released Breitbart went on to attack Sherrod's credibility when she tried to refute accusations against her.
Breitbart certainly does not hold back in his first post. Some of the more controversial quotes including the following:
"Over the past year, the mainstream media has collaborated with the White House in an attempt to paint the Tea Party as racist."
"The mainstream media promotes the idea that the Tea Party is racist because they want to delegitimize an authentic, grassroots movement that stands up to big government."
"Jihadist high-rollers or the window-breaking drum circle thugs in Madison are handled with more respect in the press than the guilty-until-proven-innocent Tea Party or people at health care town hall meetings."
The Huffington Post largely established itself as blog providing a liberal/progressive perspective on the news stories of the day. Slowly the website evolved into a media powerhouse by expanding coverage to include celebrity gossip and NSFW photos of supermodels. While this practice was criticized by some, the results were certainly impressive and others, including "Foxy News," seemed to follow their examples. Many feared the website would change for the worse once it was sold to AOL/Time Warner, and many will cite the Breitbart blog as evidence that those fears were substantiated.
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