Does The Onion deserve to win a Pulitzer Prize? After publishing what might be their 1,000th issue as of this month (they aren’t entirely sure), the editors of the satirical newspaper think that it’s high time it was recognized– and they’ve launched an intense online campaign to make their dream a reality. Supporting their cause is a “a nonprofit watchdog group committed to exposing those who engage in improper journalism-award-giving” called Americans for Fairness in Awarding Journalism Prizes, as well as a random assortment of celebrities that includes Tom Hanks, Gayle King, Arianna Huffington, Mario Batali, and the president of Georgia. Click through to watch a PSA from AFAJP, and if you want to get involved, sign a strongly worded online petition to the Pulitzer Board here.
After four years building the Huffington Post into nonstop-news central, Arianna Huffington is eyeing Oprah’s territory with the launch of the HuffPost Book Club. Her first selection praises the slowness that’s gone missing from our lives. So, is the queen of 24/7 news downshifting? She spoke with us about how she likes to disconnect, why she’s holding book discussions over Twitter, and what’s stopping her from making a Tina Brown move into print publishing.
The New York Times issues a set of standards for their in-house blogs. Included in the memo that was leaked to Gawker: “What should be avoided in all of them is any hint of racist, sexist or religious bias, or any suggestion of nasty, snide, sarcastic, or condescending tone – ‘snark.’ If something could easily fit in a satirical Web site for young adults, it probably shouldn’t go into the news pages of nytimes.com.”
- Arianna Huffington, telling Jon Stewart on last night’s Daily Show about one of the silver lining consequences of the recession — more blogging!
“I can’t believe that you just put a positive spin on the economic crisis,” Stewart replied during their lively yet substantial back-and-forth about the merits of blogging. Stewart gave Huffington a hard time, comparing the spread of blogs to an STD and badgering her about whether or not it is waste of people’s time. She fought back, highlighting the importance of intimate communication about all subjects, poetically claiming that blogging is like “a first draft of history” — a line that we’ll be sure to use on our parents the next time they moan about the fact that we didn’t pursue a career in medicine.
The interview is full of quips with substance, as Stewart one-on-ones usually are, but you can probably guess why we like this one so much — we’ve got our own not so tiny stake in the debate. And while we realize Huffington was just promoting her new book —The Huffington Post Guide to Blogging — we are all about a little solidarity.
