The other day, a friend of mine bought an iPad, and I watched him using it at Starbucks, and marveled at the excellent technology, and all the apps he had downloaded.
He showed me that he was reading the Huffington Post, a publication, online or otherwise that I wouldn't give you two cents for, but apparently AOL would.
Interestingly enough my friend thought it to be a relatively trustworthy news source.
Of course, I see it as exactly the opposite because to me, I feel the content is mostly leaning to the left and not always fair and balanced.
Nevertheless, let's go ahead and talk about this as I have a few statements to make.
You see, I think it's time for a Huffington Roast.
You know, the kind of Roast you give to a celebrity where you bring up all the negative things in a comedy like routine, as to jab a little, but do so in jest.
First let's start with how the Huffington Post had treated its bloggers.
It got most of its content for free, and then it sold itself for a huge amount of money.
The bloggers were miffed because they didn't get any of the money from the hundreds of millions of dollars in the sale price.
Of course, the bloggers also were never promised that they would get money for posting articles, or news related material on that site, rather they got their name well known, Internet notoriety, and perhaps links to their website.
Mostly it was the ego thing for these folks, which was much like a vanity press venue, allowing the bloggers to put forth their opinions and giving them a place to be heard.
Indeed, they did it for free, and they knew what they were doing.
Now then, as soon as the Huffington Post sold for hundreds of millions of dollars, they decided they should in fact get some of that money, as they are the ones who made the Huffington Post so famous, and therefore increased its value.
What I find interesting is that all of these bloggers are anti-capitalist, and they are anti-greed.
But as soon as they saw money going to the Huffington Organization, they wanted to get their little hands on it.
May I ask what the difference is between a businessman that runs a business that sells a product or service and gets rich, supposedly labeled as greedy - or a blogger who sees dollar signs, and all the suddenly is greedy to get some for himself? Isn't the greed for money very similar? The only difference is that the businessman delivered a product or service in the free-market with an implied upon agreement from the onset, whereas the bloggers at Huffington wanted to renege on their agreement for putting up the free content, and then sue for money that they felt available now that the Huffington Organization sold for 100s of Millions.
Isn't that somewhat of a "greedy" move, on their part? I ask this question because indeed, that wasn't part of the original deal, when those bloggers had posted all that content.
Meanwhile, all their content is still up and available, so they are still getting the benefits the promised, so what is with this big lawsuit, or attempt to get at some of those 100s of millions of dollars? Are you beginning to see my point here? Yes, it's time for a Huffington Roast, I believe.