Seizing the opportunity to rally his tea party troops, Allen West sounded off about AOL's $315 million purchase of left-leaning Huffington Post, insinuating that the large-scale merger is a threat to tea party presence online.
"You look out there, you see that AOL has purchased the Huffington Post. Now all of a sudden a very far left liberal blogger such as Arianna Huffington has a huge influence in the internet world," he said Tuesday, Politico reported.
This loaded statement is simply sensational, a quality widespread and detrimental to both politics and media, a quality exhibited more extremely by bombastic West than even Huffington Post and its ALL CAPS sometimes liberal oh-wow headlines.
First, West's statements bring into question whether he's even read Huffington Post. It's a news site, full of aggregation and blog posts. Pretty much anyone who writes like a coherent human being can have his or her voice heard. In fact, it might even be wise for West to advise his supporters to start blogging for the Huffington Post. Its liberal slant is certainly not a myth, but it is way more evident in commentary about Huffington Post than it is when reading its actual content.
Second, calling Arianna Huffington a "far left liberal blogger" is a little bit funny. It's like calling Joe Biden a Democratic voter -- well, yes, he is that, but he's also the vice president of our country.
West went on, "We cannot allow ourselves to be suppressed. We cannot allow them to take over the internet."
The beauty of the internet is that it cannot be taken over; it's essentially limitless, even to sites like Conservapedia (read its definition of Huffington Post). Plus, what's the solution to squashing big web-based company mergers with the potential to upset the political balance of the "internet world"? More government control?
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