B4B News U Should Know
Right Wing Congress to
Investigate AARP
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON, D.C. – The powerful House Ways & Means Committee has asked the Internal Revenue Service to conduct a probe of the AARP, one of the nation’s largest and most powerful membership organizations. The committee released a new report, “Behind the Veil: The AARP America Doesn’t Know,” that charges the AARP with a conflict of interest between the interests of its members, its massive insurance business and its tax exempt status. Investigate AARP
The committee report says that the AARP stands to make as much as $1 billion over the next decade because of the new health care law it helped push through Congress. The AARP spent $22 million lobbying Congress during the year-long health care fight. (read rest of article)
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Arianna: The Huffington Post is not a
'lefty' Publication Anymore
(Raw Story) In a recent interview with The New York Times, Arianna Huffington revealed a bit of news that's not likely to show up on The Huffington Post's front page any time soon: the site is no longer "lefty" in its political bent.'lefty' Publication Anymore
That will likely come as a surprise to the massive audience of Democrats and liberals The Huffington Post has attracted over the years, who've turned the site into a powerful voice for progressive values and one of the largest online publications going.
Speaking to New York Times reporter Andrew Goldman, Huffington said that for the last three years she has been walking the post-partisan talk.
"The tag line that we’ve used a lot is 'Beyond left and right,'" she reportedly said.
The Times' writer fired back, suggesting that she was "trying to tell me that Smurfs aren’t blue" by claiming that The Huffington Post was not founded as a "lefty" publication.
"I’m just telling you that it is very clear that we have progressive views, but to call everything we’re doing lefty — it misses the whole point that American policy needs to be redefined beyond left and right," she reportedly said. "It’s a completely obsolete view of politics."
"Still, I’m amazed you’re trying to tell me that The Huffington Post wasn’t started as a lefty blog?" Goldman asked.
"I’m not trying to tell you anything," she reportedly replied. "I’m telling you things. I’m not trying, O.K.?"
The interviewer also claimed that "salacious," "boob-related" posts on Huffington's front page tend to get his clicks more than their original reporting -- a point Arianna said was "really a shame."
The published text of Huffington's interview was "condensed and edited," according to a tag below the piece.
Huffington has of late been feuding with Bill Keller, the Times' executive editor, who recently compared her business practices to "Somali piracy."
The Huffington Post has significantly more readers than The New York Times.
But in recent months Huffington has been under fire from liberals and progressives, namely due to AOL's announcement that it was purchasing the site and making Arianna the editor-in-chief of its new Huffington Post Media Group, under which all their editorial content now falls.
Some 900 of AOL's global employees were let go after the Huffington Post purchase, representing about 20 percent of its workforce. The majority were in back-office operations in India.
AOL reportedly paid $315 million for the site, sparking an outcry from a group of unpaid Huffington Post contributors who demanded to share in the proceeds. (read rest of article)
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