The political commentator and co-founder of the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, talked to Time Magazine some time ago.
Self-study activity:
Watch the interview and say whether the statements below are true or false.
1 Arianna Huffington objects to average ordinary Americans gaining power in the political scene.
2 Arianna Huffington is a religious person.
3 The media tend to always offer a balanced presentation of a story.
4 The global warming debate has delayed solutions unnecessarily.
5 Voters have the perception that Republicans are more reliable than Democrats as far as national security is concerned.
We are here with Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post for Time Magazine. Arianna, thanks for joining us.
Thank you. Good to be with you.
What would you say it’s been the defining moment for you as a political figure?
For me, there’s a kind of aha moment when Kent Lott had to resign as majority leader because of the persistence of some bloggers starting with Josh Marshall, and stayed with it and stayed with it and developed the story and added new facts until the mainstream media had to pick it up again, leading to Kent Lott’s resignation. That was pretty much a defining moment in terms of my understanding of a new power in the hands of average ordinary Americans and the power of staying with the story, basically being OCD as opposed to ADD, you know, demonstrating obsessive compulsive disorder, which I love, and staying with your story.
In your world, how do you combine spirituality with politics?
That’s a great question. I am… First of all, my spirituality is very important to me. It’s the way I bring balance to my life and I profoundly believe in God. I meditate, I’m… I try to bring up my children with that belief that there is… that we are just not material beings, that death is not the end. And this is some of the values that I bring to them to our living page.
Conservatives complain that the media has a bias to the left. Do you believe this is true?
The problem with the media is not that they are veering to their left or veering to their right. But that they are… they have an addiction to presenting two sides to every issue, even when the truth lies on one side or the other. And that’s why I describe them as the Pontius Pilate media. And just to give you a couple of examples. Global warming. We’ve wasted years debating global warming with the media presenting, let’s say, Al Gore or the equivalent discussing the dangers of global warming and, on the other hand, Senator James Inhofe or Michael Crichton telling us that global warming is a fraud. Now these two positions are not of equal value. So the media’s responsibility has always been to ferret out the truth. And the truth is often on one side or the other and is not often to be found by splitting the difference. So I think that the national debate would be greatly enhanced if journalists really followed their original mission, the highest mission of journalists, which is what is the truth, especially after 71/2 years when we have suffered from a contempt for facts, evidence and the truth. It’s very important to really put them at the center of everything we’re doing. After 71/2 years of mission accomplished and heck of a job brownie, insurgency, death rows,, we’re gonna be greeted as liberators. All those things which have turned out in retrospect to have been devoid of any connection to truth or facts.
What can liberal politicians learn from republican tactics?
The most important thing liberal politicians can learn is to go after your opponent’s strength. That is Karl Rove’s great gift to the Republican Party. And if we translate that into practicality, what Barack Obama’s campaign would do, and it would mean recognizing that John McCain’s strength is the perception that he would be better for our national security and Barack Obama needs to grasp after that.
Ron Golden in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, wants to know who would you rather date, Bill Maher or Al Franken?
You see, these 'either or' things are so old media. Why not date Bill Maher or Al Franken.
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