AOL, America’s favorite provider of substandard email and dial-up internet, has recently purchased The Huffington Post for $315 million. That is 315 with six zeros after it. And many thought there was no value to what journalists did these days? Oh, but, these weren’t journalists. They were citizen journalists and bloggers – a lesser valued but similar version of a traditional journalist. I don’t necessarily agree with that last statement. But I tell you who does agree with that: Arianna Huffington. She built an empire from nothing by aggregating content from citizen journalists and bloggers, for low or no cost, and made millions off of their hard work.
You’ll have to excuse my language for the next part. Kids, ear muffs. You. stupid. fucking. morons. How could you NOT think you would end up getting screwed in this deal? You thought giving away your content was OK because after all it got you a byline and some web traffic. You thought doing it for free was what everyone did. You thought that it was for the good of society and a free press. I actually agree with some of that last idea. However, there is a value to creating content. This includes good photography and good reporting. You got FUCKED without dinner or a movie. How does that feel?