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Aside from Sarah and Paul’s strange Bieber-based attempts at SEO, I haven’t noticed many changes around here since some AOL people and then Arianna Huffington became my uber bosses. I mean I still get paid to work and everything which is cool so + 1!
But really my AOL hat really isn’t enough to keep me from absolutely loving what Stephen Colbert just did in an acutely searing critique of The Huffington Post’s controversial content practices.
On his show tonight Colbert, frustrated with all the free content Arianna Huffington has been glomming off “The Colbert Report” and others, announced that he would build his own site and call it “The Colbuffington Re-Post.” The Colbuffington Re-Post has “everything you love about the Huffington Post because it is the Huffington Post with a new border around it that says the Colbuffington Re-Post.”
Har har indeed, except that when you actually visit TheColbuffingtonRepost.com, it truly serves up an exact copy of The Huffington Post with Stephen Colbert’s Colbuffington Re-Post logo. a) I’m not sure this is even legal. b) Just wait ’til Arianna gets a load of this.
And sure The Huffington Post might just repost this story and somehow find a way to monetize it all and true we’re getting traffic of this too (Thank you for the free content Stephen) … But aside from what this means in terms of eCPM or whatever the business model is these days, we as consumers and producers of media must sit back and appreciate the sheer ingenuity of The Colbuffington Re-Post, at least for a moment. You win Colbert.
Notable quotes from the above clip:
“I’m a big fan of the Internet, it can answer any question from ‘Where can I get a pair of pants?’ to ‘Where is the porn?’ to ‘Woo boy where can I get another pair of pants?'”
“Huffpo is famous for its extensive comprehensive coverage of things other people produced and put on the Internet.”
“Hopefully HuffPo will be a new source of revenue for AOL, whose income currently depends on 82 year old Delaware resident Claire Meyers and the $10 an hour she still pays for dial up service.”
“You have acheived the impossible, you have made me feel angry while looking at pictures of myself. “
“Where’s my money Arianna? Don’t make me put on my rings”
“And I am proud to announce that the Colbuffington Re-Post is for sale for $316 million. Arianna if I find a buyer, I promise to give you the same cut you give me.”
Ouch.
