Huffington's Remarkable Resilience

To the casual observer, Arianna Huffington's career trajectory would be one of the more baffling success stories in politics and media. How could one woman manage to evolve from being a contrarian of the feminist movement of the 70s, to an intellectual with questionable credentials in the 80s, then to a strong advocate for the Republican party and Newt Gingrich in the 90s, and lastly an outraged liberal with a distaste for mainstream media? A new, highly critical review of the Huffington's new book, Right Is Wrong published in The New Republic, takes the new media maven to task, painting her as a cunning businesswoman with a penchant for sensing the zeitgeist, but lacking any legitimate credibility. The writer, Isaac Chotiner, unleashes a barrage of beefs with Huffington, but one of the most current—and common—criticisms is of her Web site, which he paints as a barnacle on the hull of journalism. Her new book, according to Chotiner, is "less genuine and more tiresome," and plagued by gaps in logic and Huffington's ego.