Home > The M.O. > Archives > 2011 > January > 04 > Entry
Poor taste at the Huffington Post
As David Carr points out in the Media Decoder blog over at the The New York Times, despite the heavy sighing serving as a (pre-mature) dirge for the journalism industry, some outposts in the industry are doing better than ever. Bloomberg reports that, with $30 million in sales, the Huffington Post is set to turn its first profit.
This means that, while some people at newspapers pack up their boxes and hit the streets, the Huffington Post is actually hiring. Good for them, and those who will eventually get the available jobs, I say.
But, as Carr mentions, some of the glib, job postings leave a little to be desired for. The following is a job posting from the site’s comedy section:
“If you love the Daily Show, can’t live without funnyordie, was a fan of Zach Galifianakis waaaaay before The Hangover, are always the first one in your group to spot the next Double Rainbow or Antoine Dodson (don’t even send us your resume if you don’t know who that is!), then this gig might be for you.”
Now, I love ‘The Daily Show,’ enjoy funnyordie and have followed Galifianakis’ career for years, but I have to admit that even though I spend way too much time online each day, I didn’t know who Antoine Dodson is. So, I clicked the link Carr provided. Turns out Mr. Dodson is a doo-ragged and effeminate Alabama man who gained online “fame” by speaking out passionately on TV after his sister accused a home invader of rape. Pretty hilarious stuff, that rape.
Dodson’s appearance on the news last summer led to him becoming an Internet meme almost instantly. Several sites linked to the video, that has since been seen over 26 million times, and musical parodies quickly scattered like wild fire. While some of the tunes may have been amusing, there is no humor in sexual assault or rape.
Maybe you think I’m a Pollyanna or the Political Correctness Police for overreacting or bringing light to such a posting. Well, there are a billion funny Internet memes out there that don’t tread in sexual-attack humor. Maybe in their job posting, the HuffPo was referring to the phenomenon of Dodson and not the original story. Or maybe they should have left the jokes to the people in their comedy team and not in their HR department.
For more background on the Dodson phenomenon, check out Andy Carvin’s piece on All Tech Considered last year.
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By Noonie
January 4, 2011 1:40 PM | Link to this
I’m embarassed. All this time I thought it was a skit — albeit an awkward, unfunny one — from Mad TV. I didn’t realize this was from a legitimate news broadcast. Ugh.
By David White
January 4, 2011 2:42 PM | Link to this
Dear Matthew, You are really scraping the barrel to find something to be upset with Huffpost about. Mr. Dodson was not, nor was Huffpost, condoning sexual assault. Any notoriety garnered by Mr. Dodson resulted from his genuine expressions of outrage at the rapist. The Gregory Brothers later turned the vid into a song, but it is mostly known as a creative vehicle for expressing outrage, not for making light of sexual assault. My guess is that you presumed to get readership by the same means as FOX and others by setting up a strawman as demon, only without facts or argument, only innuendo. I suspect you will probably get a few rightwing nuts to jump on your taste police bandwagon, but in my view you would do better to simply name your ideological biases and stop hiding them behind faux outrage. You would sleep better at night and you might even enhance the state of real conversation in this country.