This was my first visit to the Huffington Post and I was not sure what to expect when I finally got the chance to look at it. In appearance it actually seems to be like a regular news site and the articles that appear there are much different than what one sees at CNN or the New York Times. I read an article about how Obama has lifted the ban on having the media cover war dead arriving back in the U.S and about another about how Alexrod, one of the Presidents advisors, is firing back at Dick Cheney for his comments about the War on Terror and how he feels that the President is inviting attacks on the American people. Its also interesting to see that many different articles are posted on the main page and that they are viewpoints that are not commonly seen in the mass media. Many of these articles are based in opinion but they use facts to back up their arguments and validate their messages. This format is a great way for people who want an outside opinion to come up with their own opinions on what is happening in the world around them and lets the break free of the bonds of the agenda that the big news organizations try to push on their readers. The cool thing about this blog is that at the very bottom of the main page there is a section just for the display of all of the news sources cited in their articles and I was surprised to see Al Jezeera as one of them. As I was saying before its a great place to get insight on issues that we either never heard of or have only heard of from the basis point of view that is seen on T.V or read in newspapers all the time. This site also uses Twitter and RSS as a way for people to get more involved and keep them informed in the content of the site. The most interesting part of this site is that it is open for anyone to leave a comment or write about anything that is important to them. This lets people get involved in the events that interest them and if someone is passionate about something they are able to get an enormous audience to share their thoughts. Blogs like this have changed the way people are able to obtain information and share their viewpoints in a mass forum. It seems that blogs are going to be a huge part, if not already, as legitimate places to obtain information and come up with opinions of your own on important issues.
The quality of the posts was surprisingly informed. I felt that some of the articles could have been written by people who were journalists. The one thing that is not great is that the writing was not consistent and some articles were very intelligently written and others were lacking in comparison. If that is the price that one pays for getting a broader opinion on events it seems like this may be a double edged sword. If someone makes good points but isn't at a standard educational level it is much more difficult to take their argument seriously. At the same time sometimes a good point is a good point. It really lies in the readers hands to decide for him/herself if an argument is valid and if the journalist really knows what they are talking about.
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