HuffPo's New Faves: Nip Slips, Nude Pics

Once a political site, the Huffington Post turns NSFW for traffic
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 25, 2009 8:17 AM CST
HuffPo's New Faves: Nip Slips, Nude Pics
A screen shot of the Huffington Post's popular coverage of Vanessa Hudgens' nude pics.   (Huffington Post via Weekly Standard)

Though the Huffington Post is run by a liberal, feminist woman, it’s taken a misogynistic, traffic-grabbing turn of late. Take, for example, the gratuitous use of the word “whore” (headline count: three instances) and equally gratuitous shot of Spitzer call girl Ashley Dupre in a recent story about Rep. Alan Grayson, Mary Katharine Ham writes in the Weekly Standard. Not enough? Consider yesterday’s most popular item, featuring the terms “topless,” “muddy,” “nudity,” and “NSFW” all in one header.

The site’s language has taken a decidedly tabloidy turn: “Megan Fox Wears Panties, Lifts Foot Above Head (PHOTOS),” anyone? Even the newsworthy pieces (Craigslist prostitution ring) are accompanied by shameless photos. “If the story doesn't bring you in, this faceless woman in a hot dress with her feet in the air will,” Ham writes. “It won't be long before people start to claim, defensively, at DC dinner parties that they just read HuffPo ‘for the articles.’”
(More Huffington Post stories.)

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