Arianna Huffington, who created the massively popular news site Huffington Post, closed out Business Insidera4ぎa4г Ignition conference today by taking a swipe at the earlier comments.
a4ぎAYou guys are all about who has the biggest swinging dick,a4ぎ Huffington said.
She was responding specifically to a morning panel where Business Insider co-founder Henry Blodget pushed executives from both HuffPo and the Wall Street Journal to say which company will be bigger in five years. Huffington said thata4ぎa4г a dumb, very male way to look at the world, when in fact both the Journal and the HuffPo can flourish, and a bunch of new publications can take off too.
Huffington also rejected the idea that the HuffPo is in a rivalry with Tina Browna4ぎa4г site The Daily Beast, especially now that The Daily Beast has merged with Newsweek. Whenever two women are involved, people assume a4ぎAthere must have been a catfight somewhere,a4ぎ Huffington said, but she isna4ぎa4д thinking about any rivalry, because her company is doing just fine. Ita4ぎa4г profitable and has 24 million unique monthly visitors. Shea4ぎa4г still hoping to grow HuffPoa4ぎa4г audience, but she said that doesna4ぎa4д have to be at the expense of other publications.
a4ぎAThata4ぎa4г an old-fashioned guy game,a4ぎ Huffington said. a4ぎAWe women just need to resist participating in it.a4ぎ
That wasn&'t the only idea that Huffington took issue with. She also pushed back against the idea that the Huffington Post is a liberal blog. She prefers to think of the site as a a4ぎAbeyond left and righta4ぎ publication thata4ぎa4г willing to look at good ideas no matter where they come from on the political spectrum. At the same time, ita4ぎa4г not tied to false ideas of objectivity &8212' when one side is clearly wrong and one is clearly right, ita4ぎa4г not good journalism to pretend that they have equal weight, she said.
a4ぎAThere are some people who think the Earth is round and there are some people who think the Earth is flat,a4ぎ Huffington said &8212' and we dona4ぎa4д need to pretend that both opinions are equally valid. That may sound absurd, she said, but you see the same thing in the debate with global warming.
Thata4ぎa4г what separates HuffPo from something like Fox News, Huffington argued. Theya4ぎa4вe not just the same publication on different sides of the political spectrum.
a4ぎAI&'m saying Fox News is not news,a4ぎ Huffington said.
[photo by Owen Thomas]
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Companies: Huffington Post
People: Arianna Huffington
Companies: Huffington Post
People: Arianna Huffington
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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