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The mainstream media is so full of right wing and

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centrist news coverage that many of us who

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desire social change take to the internet to find

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out what's happening in the world

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The Huffington Post a so called progressive

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liberal newsblogs that you may have heard of

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was founded in 2005 by Arianna Huffington

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she wanted to create a liberal counterpoint to

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right wing sites such as the Drudge Report

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I'm all for liberal and progressive news blogs but

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the problem with HuffPo is they are continually

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throwing women under the bus

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the website is dripping with sexism

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Progressive politics includes issues around

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racism and sexism, class, disability and

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sexuality. According to Alexa.com the Huffington

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Post is the 36th most viewed site in the US

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It beats out the Wall Street Journal and the LA

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Times. In order to entice viewers they use a tactic

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called Link baiting. It's any content within a

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website design specifically to gain attention.

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Linkbaiting is an internet marketing strategy that

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relies on sensationalism to

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bring in viewers which then

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generates more ad revenue. In this case they

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regularly show women's nipples, cleavage and

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asses in order to entice views, and they even

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have a section called Celebrity Skin because

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apparently they aren't shy at all about their

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objectification. And let's be clear now

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objectification isn't just showing women's bodies

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it's using women's bodies to sell something

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so in this case they're selling "real" news stories

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but they are bringing people in by talking about

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celebrity nipples and which female politician is

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hotter. They often have images of half naked

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women right next to the "legitimate" news stories

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Or they will feature a popular news story like the

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one about the proposed mosque in New York City

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but they will use a nearly full screen image of a

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woman's body stratling a stripper pole

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This is fundamentally an issue about racism in

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America yet they're using a woman's body to

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gain attention. Since it's a powerful image to use

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as linkbait, they used it repeatedly on the site

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over and over and over and over again

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This would of course bother me in general

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but I'm specifically pissed off at this site because

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they claim to be liberal and progressive

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when they are clearly not when it comes to

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women. They have categories like Obama, Sarah

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Palin, economy, housing, Glenn Beck, the war

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And then they have an Entertainment section

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with categories like celebrity skin, sex tapes

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Lindsay Lohan, Jersey Shore, and these are all

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readily and easily available, they show up

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regularly on the home page yet I have to dig

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in order to find Women's Rights tucked away

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in the World section, which hardly ever shows up

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on the front page. Apparently women's rights

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don't rise to the level of importance as naked

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celebrities.

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This is even more apparently on their

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Activism section which is also tucked away and

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hard to find because the first three featured

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articles are of half naked women, you can thank

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PETA for that one. Because of this it's not

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surprising that women bloggers on the site are

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also treated with a similar disrespect. Although

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there are female and feminist bloggers on

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Huffington Post they rarely get featured as

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news items. So if it doesn't make it to the front

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page or the front page of their respective

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sections it's going to get very few views because

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there is so much content filtering through HuffPo

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everyday. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

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did a study that found that only 23% of featured

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content was written by women.

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I know what you are thinking, it was founded by

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a woman, a powerful woman and yes but Sarah

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Palin is also a powerful woman and look at how

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disgraceful she is when it comes to women's

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rights. Just because it's female fronted doesn't

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change the fact that it's structurally and

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institutionally excluding women from the

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intellectual sphere and most often only featuring

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women as linkbait. The popularity of this site

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serves to define progressive politics and they're

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saying that woman aren't really included in any

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substantial capacity. Too often websites like the

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Huffington Post gets to claim a progressive slant

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while treating women in ways that liberals would

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be pretty pissed off about if they saw it on Fox

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News. Any progressive news site worth following

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clearly and transparently includes race, gender,

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sexuality, class and ability throughout the entire

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site, not just when it's convenient for their

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marketing strategy.