Wednesday, November 3, 2010

What leftist bias? HuffPost's election night headlines, 2010 vs 2006

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What a difference four years make.

When the Democrats won the House in 2006, HuffPost trumpeted this victory, and claimed it was America's rebuke of the sitting president (image from 2006 courtesy of The Wayback Machine):
COUNTRY DEMANDS CHANGE IN IRAQ: DEMS WIN HOUSE AND LEAD IN KEY SENATE RACES

6/10 DISAPPROVE OF BUSH'S JOB HANDLING

Yet in 2010, when conservatives and the Tea Party --- against whom HuffPost has engaged in a hypocritical "journalistic jihad" of smears, lies and libels --- prevailed in taking back the House, making major gains in the Senate, and winning more governor's mansions, how did HuffPost play it? As "GRIDLOCK":
GRIDLOCK IN AMERICA

Does this validate our allegations of a radical leftist bias at HuffPost, as indicated by our documentation, over two years, of its inflammatory, malicious articles against conservatives, the U.S. military, and Israel and Jews? According to Arianna Huffington, absolutely not... because she has repeatedly claimed for five years that HuffPost is a "nonpartisan" newspaper:

"I actually believe that the news is not right-wing news or left-wing news, it's the news. And that will be the sensibility, that will basically permeate our news coverage."
- May 3, 2005

"The editorial stance of the Huffington Post is to debunk the right-left way of thinking
, which has become completely obsolete."
- November 14, 2007

“[W]e are increasingly seen ... as an Internet newspaper, not positioned ideologically in terms of how we cover the news.”
- May 22, 2009
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ADDENDUM 1: HuffPost's article copy clashes with headline, puts election night into accurate context


Reader "Josie" wrote in to advise us that the opening paragraph of HuffPost's original reporting at that story link reads:
It was a historic session -- one of the most productive since the New Deal -- but in the end, it was brief. Four years after taking over Congress with the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrats lost control of the chamber in a devastating, wipeout election.
So how did HuffPost arrive at "gridlock"? Well, because one source claimed that's what's going to happen. Read it all here.


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ADDENDUM 2: Photo-bias? What photo-bias?


Guess this is an example of what HuffPost's former CEO
described as its approach to "covering the news with... new ideas about balance and fairness." How HuffPost depicted Obama, commenting about the spanking that the American people gave the Democrats last night --- statesmanlike, sincere, forthright:


And John Boehner, the presumed Speaker-elect? Oh, just a slightly different pictorial tone...


As we commented here, no matter how many times it lies about it, HuffPost is to nonpartisanship as Michael Moore is to a healthy lifestyle.



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1 comment:

  1. Well, Gridlock is what the Feudal GOP piggies do. Maybe if they would govern, they would not receive headlines like this.

    Unemployment needs to be funded but the tax cuts for the rich do not? Yep...that's governing.

    ReplyDelete