Huff & Puff It Down | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters

Socialite Arianna Huffington built a blog-empire on the backs of thousands of citizen journalists. She exploited our idealism and let us labor under the illusion that the Huffington Post was different, independent and leftist. Now she's cashed in and three thousand indie bloggers find themselves working for a megacorp.

But the Huffington Post is not Arianna's to sell. It is ours: the lefty writers and readers, environmentalism activists and anti-corporate organizers who flooded the site with 25 million visits a month. So we're going to take it back.

We'll stop going to her site. And we'll stop blogging for her too. Then we'll give birth to an alternative to AOL's HuffPo by using the #huffpuff hash tag to tell the world about our favorite counter-culture websites and indie blogs.

We are the ones who built the Huffington Post. And now we will be the ones who will huff & puff it down.

Updated | Feb. 10 – 4:00 p.m.

#HUFFPUFF has touched a nerve. Now, a firestorm is developing as writers, readers and publishers of indie media are rallying to huff and puff Arianna's AOL merger into the ground.

Media activists, this is our chance to strike a blow against the corporate media and simultaneously energize the indie blogosphere … a step towards a world where the news that animates our political and activist lives is not controlled by those who pander to advertisers and the bottom line. With continued pressure, we can topple AOL-HuffPo and fertilize a healthy media ecology.

So let's keep blowing harder and harder!

If you are a writer, take your content off the Huffington Post (like Al Giordano of @Narco_News did)
If you are a HuffPo reader, unsubscribe/uninstall the app/delete your bookmark to the Huffington Post (like @jaberard, @RavenWytch, and @drlawler)
Everyone, keep telling the world about your favorite alternative indie sites using the #huffpuff tag (see the list of alternatives nominated thus far below)

There is power in concerted effort, so let's keep huff'n & puff'n and huff'n & puff'n until we've blown AOL/HuffPost's house down!

Here is a list of alternative media sources our readers have suggested via twitter and on our blog:

Tweet your HuffPo alternative with the #huffpuff tag or post your suggestion in the comments below.

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by Anonymous on March 14 2011, @01:10 am

This is just completely

by mattlove1 on March 11 2011, @07:12 am

This is just completely perplexing. I thought the idea was presenting an alternative to Huffington Post. What I valued about Huffington is that its one place you can go and spend some time knocking around. You don't offer an alternative to that - you suggest going to to 150 other places, many of which I already know about and go to, none of which offer what Huffington did/does. I honestly don't hate or even care very much she sold out to AOL. As for people not getting paid - hey, you volunteered to work for free, expect to be exploited by rich people. No, what I liked about Huffington was you could talk to other people with different viewpoints - it wasn't the amen corner, you weren't preaching to the choir. But what is dispicable is the arbitrary and boneheaded exercise of power by the moderators - apparently our peers, elevated to the role of being our censors. I think what is needed is another Huffington, not owned by Ariana, but owned by the users, one where free speech is practiced. Oh, and though they often misfired, I like how Huffington had humor features. Humor is in short supply on the left, and it should be encouraged.

I used to have all three of

by five finger shoes on March 07 2011, @06:13 pm

I used to have all three of these Vibram five fingers characteristics. Not when I was an adventure-seeking, rambunctious toddler, but as an older high school teenager. It was at this stage that my foolish rascal tendencies were at their Vibram fivefingers kso highest. Would I remain vibram five fingers sprint on track to becoming a doctor like my parents wanted? This moment would serve as the spark that set in motion a process of learning life lesson, molding me into the vibram five fingers classic person you're reading through your computer screen.

If you want to know what's

by Anonymous on February 27 2011, @08:39 am

If you want to know what's really going on in the US and world economy and finance, you go here...
http://www.zerohedge.com/

Hi all, I help edit an

by Anonymous on February 22 2011, @09:50 am

Hi all,

I help edit an influential progressive blog called New Deal 2.0, a project of the Roosevelt Institute: http://www.newdeal20.org We mostly focus on progressive economics issues, but as you can see on the site those quickly spread to touch on most of the issues of the day. We're always open to bringing in new progressive voices, so please feel free to reach out to us!

-Bryce

Hiya! I help produce a thirty

by Alexei on February 19 2011, @05:32 am

Hiya! I help produce a thirty minute news show called The Global Report. We are a team of about ten people, & it's 100% volunteer. It gets out every week for the past four years on public access stations across the US, both satellite stations, & available on the web. We specifically report on "under-reported" news, news left out of the mainstream press. Check us out:
theglobalreport.org

http://www.consumertrap.com h

by Anonymous on February 18 2011, @04:14 pm

http://www.consumertrap.com
http://www.deathbycar.info

lol 133 comments and

by nonymous on February 17 2011, @02:19 am

lol 133 comments and rising..

if ever clarity was given to the issue closest to adbusters heart..

..world death, tortuous political injustice? no.
omg they deleted my account! but i wrote that for free! what? how much? 133m? come on everyone, group hate please.

Infowars.com http://mises.org

by Anonymous on February 15 2011, @09:55 pm

Infowars.com
http://mises.org/

There you go.

alex jones and his sites of

by Anonymous on February 17 2011, @03:04 pm

alex jones and his sites of misinformation are whats wrong with America. please do not visit his sites. they are twisted glen beck BS

for ecology / environmental

by Anonymous on February 15 2011, @05:00 am

for ecology / environmental issues and green living, try www.grist.com and www.ecohearth.com

The Christian Science Monitor

by Anonymous on February 14 2011, @02:38 am

The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) had a reputation for unbiased and objective reporting, and did very good international reporting through the 1980's, but developed a neo-con, neoliberal orientation (around the mid-90's). It promoted the Iraq invasion and persecuted George Galloway, an early critic of the Bush administration. For many subscribers, this was the last straw.

From Wikipedia:

The Christian Science Monitor also published a story on 25 April 2003, stating that they had documentary evidence that he had received "more than ten million dollars" from the Iraqi regime. However, on 20 June 2003, the Monitor reported[104] that their own investigation had concluded the documents were sophisticated forgeries, and apologised. Galloway rejected the newspaper's apology, asserted that the affair was a conspiracy against him, and continued a libel claim against the paper.
The Christian Science Monitor settled the claim, paying him an undisclosed sum in damages, on 19 March 2004.bers (including me) stopped reading it at this time.

Any opinions on The Christian

by Anonymous on February 13 2011, @10:31 pm

Any opinions on The Christian Science Monitor? http://www.csmonitor.com/

I know its not just a blogging site, but hey, maybe some of you bloggers can go and be actual reporters working for an unbiased publication.

I personally don't read CSM, but its one of the few tidbits I recall from my overpriced college education; that CSM was supposedly an unbiased publication

Generally when you are

by Anonymous on February 13 2011, @10:13 pm

Generally when you are posting contents to a site that somebody else owns:

Youtube
Adbusters
Flickr
Picasa
Facebook
Myspace

or whatever

you are supporting their business.

They love you when you post more and more contents for them because it increases their total value.

"It pays to be cynical on the net"

Adbusters is not equivalent

by Anonymous on February 14 2011, @03:14 am

Adbusters is not equivalent with Facebook. You're missing major nuances.

It is impossible to escape exploitative and hierarchical societal structures, unless one goes off the grid and lives outside of society in a self-sustainable manner, like the Amish. But even they interact with members of the dominant exploitative and violent society to some extent.

However on a continuum with extreme exploitation on one end and non-exploitation and on the other end, there are groups that try to lean toward a more aware and non-exploitative stance and practices.

Adbusters, while not perfect, is obviously struggling, on a self-reflective basis, to co-create a dialogical culture of engagement on many levels, less exploitation, less materialism, and less violence.

Facebook does not have this ethos. That said (about Facebook), many social activists, artists, writers, filmmakers, and other people doing good creative work find it (and Picasa, YouTube, etc.) good and useful networking, media tools.

I don't think a Facebook page could serve as an umbrella/bridge media site that allows a forum for diverse bloggers and draws a large, diverse audience like HuffPost. For a while, it really looked like non-profit citizen journalism was coming into its own because of HuffPost.

The Nation is now selling a VISA credit card with its name on it. In the 90's, I wrote to them about their ship cruise (not sure if they still offer them), asking about eco-practices and vegetarian food (a sincere inquiry) because I wanted to minimize my carbon footprint; and never received a reply).

The point: Although it's impossible to completely escape the exploitative structures that entraps us all (Sociologist Max Weber called capitalism a historical "cage"), we can minimize and work towards the minimization of such exploitation, as Adbusters and the bloggers and others soul-searching at this thread.

Just as some societies, while not perfect, are less exploitative, more compassionate, less violent than others. Some of these cultures have had grassroots culture-jamming going on for decades, even centuries - in opposition to those who wanted to transform them into exploitation fields.

Thanks again to Adbusters for initiating this conversation.

What about those who are not

by Anonymous on February 13 2011, @08:31 pm

What about those who are not comfortable joining Facebook?

Also, do articles posted at Facebook show up in internet searches?

HuffPost was great in that it provided an open umbrella/bridge site for classical liberal (emphasize constitutionally protected individual rights and due process to guard against excess power of the State); Democratic-Party liberal (less interested in civil liberties and due process, more interested in promoting certain agendas); progressive, critical and establishment bloggers with a pop, very accessible tone that attracted a wide and popular audience.

The discussion generated at this blog is very important in addressing - where do we go from HuffPost - not only because of the betrayal of corporate sell out after HuffPost marketed itself to volunteer bloggers and an idealistic audience as an alternative following the demise of print media - but also because a move to AOL will intensify the already heavy pop/gossip content at HuffPost.

Are there any other umbrella sites?

Common Dreams is a good domestic umbrella site but only offers a limited # of reprint op-eds each day and is weak on global, indigenous, minority views and issues.

How about Alternet?

Global Voices is a global bloggers site so not good for U.S. domestic issues; also its coverage is hit and miss.

Many thanks to Adbusters, btw, for offering a forum for this conversation. I have been following the site for years and will join this year. I'm posting anonymously because I don't want my views to reflect on associations that may remain connected with HuffPost.

I have personally had issues with the pop/frivolous/materialistic content at HP for a while but the diversity of bloggers and somewhat progressive viewpoint balanced that out for me. As with those posting here, I find the sale troubling and disappointing.

"The Real Post" Facebook page

by "Don't retreat. Reword." on February 13 2011, @09:08 am

"The Real Post" Facebook page (http://tinyurl.com/therealpost) is the new alternative media home for Huffington Post writers, readers and fans. Read the latest news about the sale or post your stories there in place of, or in addition to, HuffPost/AOL.
---------------------------------
The Real Post: February 7, 2011

The Huffington Post has been sold to AOL for $315 million. Amidst the HuffPost's talk of its meteoric rise and the "time to take leaps," and the imagined sound of Champaign corks popping, there is one thing missing from the stories and from what was sold to AOL. It is what has been the most important asset the news site has had over the past five years. That is the thousands of writers/bloggers who toiled away for what was a collective hundreds of thousands of hours - with no pay or compensation - to provide the content that made the independent news site a success.

The Huffington Post was sometimes incisive, sometimes quirky, but you always knew you were reading or writing for an independent news organization.

Many writers worked for free because they wanted to help the social good, or with the hopes that someday the site would be profitable.

The $315 million sale to AOL, where the “Huffington Post brand” joins other “content sites” such as TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, and StyleList, all being overseen by Arianna Huffington as AOL’s news media content “editor in chief,” changes the equation.

Will writers be willing to continue donating their time having seen the news site become successful and then having it sold out from under them? Will they want to write for AOL? The price AOL paid for the site and the "brand" may indicate that there was concern about the core content of the site. $315 million is an impossibly low figure for the Huffington Post based on previous dot com media sales (a year ago, CBS bought the social networking site Bebo for $850 million and Groupon, the daily coupon site, is valued between $3 and $20 billion).

The Real Post is a home in exile for Huffington Post contributors and readers, and a call for an independent news site to harness the work.

http://addictinginfo.org/new/

by Anonymous on February 12 2011, @08:42 am

After 3 years of comments

by Anonymous on February 13 2011, @12:04 am

After 3 years of comments SchmaltzyTheGolem has been kicked off Huffpo for having the audacity to question the AOL deal. Pathetic. I was commenting about the Bill Maher interview from Friday night,about Huffington said she was looking into maybe voting GOP in 2012,about how she didnt answer when questioned who she would NNOT vote for amongst the crop of GOP candidates. Poof.....my profile was gone. After 3 years.

Well, you learned the hard

by Anonymous on February 13 2011, @04:21 am

Well, you learned the hard way to never, ever question "SheWhoMustNotBeNamed."-My comments to her articles never posted, so I knew early on what I could say and what not...
In any case, you are very welcome to join Planet.POV where a lot of us Ex-huffers meet, freely discuss (according to the guidelines, but not m0derated) and where we recover from the time at Huffington.

PS: my comments on her

by Anonymous on February 13 2011, @04:23 am

PS: my comments on her articles were always completely decent, but I questioned a few things she did and that was NOT appreciated. Never.

What did your contract say?

by Anonymous on February 12 2011, @07:58 am

What did your contract say? What were the terms in case of a sale? Oh, you didn't have a contract? Do you own stock in Huff post? No?

She owns Huffington. You worked for free of your own free will.

As a fellow leftie and blogger I'd ask everyone who is so irate to use that energy to make a REAL difference. Write your legislators about upcoming bills. Get involved in protecting your local environment (not just the polar bears). Run for office. Start a new group to promote progressive women in politics. Do volunteer work at Habitat. Raise funds for the arts. Etc. etc.

(Oh, and the only reason I'm not posting under my own name is I don't want to set up an account.)

Fifth Estate: The Fifth

by FE Collective on February 11 2011, @11:04 pm

Fifth Estate:

The Fifth Estate is a cooperative, non-profit, anti-authoritarian project published since 1965 by a volunteer collective of friends and comrades. We are committed to non-dogmatic, action-oriented writing and activity to bring about a new world. As opposed to professionals who publish to secure wages, or those who invest in the media information industry, we produce this magazine as an expression of our resistance to an unjust and destructive society.

On the web: http://www.fifthestate.org
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fifth-Estate/325780797375

I am not qualified to comment

by Anonymous on February 11 2011, @11:04 pm

I am not qualified to comment on Al Jazeera's Middle East coverage; however most of Al Jazeera's coverage of East Asia resembles that of the U.S. establishment media, with similar stereotypes; repetition of official narratives. I think they lack experts in some of the regions they cover.

What else?

http://www.guernicamag.com/ (politically engaged literature and arts journal)
http://www.organicconsumers.org
http://vcnv.org/ (Voices for Creative Nonviolence)
http://resurgence.org
http://transcend.org (Johann Galtung's peace news site)

(A few more from Asia-Pacific)

http://peacephilosophycentre.blogspot.com (articles, including translations of Japanese anti-war, peace-oriented news)

http://decolonizeguam.blogspot.com/
(managed by critical indigenous scholars in Guam)

http://www.yonip.com/ (Philippine Peace & Sovereignty website)

There are critical Black, African-American, regional (Appalachian) and indigenous sites too. I can't think of any extant critical Asian-American sites.

Al Jazeera as alternative,

by Anonymous on February 11 2011, @04:15 pm

Al Jazeera as alternative, lefty, etc.,? Whilst I respect the right for twitters to suggest Al Jazeera on the list of alternative media resources to visit...I am baffled...Al Jazeera is as corporate, establishment and yellow journalistic as can be...it's owned by a non democratically elected royal family (Qatar)!

Yeah, but they write/ present

by Anonymous on February 11 2011, @06:44 pm

Yeah, but they write/ present like they hate America and that is all that matters to the Huff Po crowd.

#HUFFPUFF PHASE TWO We've

by Micah White on February 11 2011, @12:19 pm

#HUFFPUFF PHASE TWO

We've used social networks to do meme warfare against AOL-HuffPo, now it is time to expand the action offline.

We hereby designate the New York and DC offices of AOL/Huffington Post, a protest zone.

To join the action:

1) Make a #huffpuff sign
2) Check in at the protest any time of day by taking a picture of yourself with the sign outside of HuffPo's offices
3) Email it to micah (at) adbusters.org

We'll feature your action on our website.

The goal is to create a steady flow of walk by protesters who send a message to AOL/HuffPo that citizen journalism is not for sale.

NEW YORK OFFICES OF AOL/HUFFPO
560 Broadway # 308,
New York, NY

WASHINGTON, DC OFFICES OF AOL/HUFFPO
1704 R Street Northwest
Washington D.C., DC 20009

Citizens for Legitimate

by Anonymous on February 11 2011, @11:45 am

Citizens for Legitimate Government has news -
legitgov.org

Another great alternative is

by Anonymous on February 11 2011, @09:38 am

Another great alternative is The New Internationalist. They have been implementing the worker's co-op model for decades and have been a largely successful international media outlet. Based in England, they often report on the underrepresented of the world, touching on themes such as economy, environment, politics, and activism of all kinds.

http://www.newint.org