Online newspaper The Huffington Post has become notorious for its practice of re-purposing content from other publications, slapping on an SEO-friendly headline and reaping the traffic rewards. But last night, Huff Po. and its content-biting habits got a satirical smack down from Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert.
After Colbert noticed that The Huffington Post, which AOL just purchased for a staggering $315 million, had not only been posting his videos on the site, but had devoted an entire page to entirely him, the comedian took aim.
“You have achieved the impossible,” said Colbert, speaking indirectly to Huff. Po. founder Arianna Huffington. “You made me feel angry while looking at pictures of myself. Where’s my money, Arianna?”
Since neither The Huffington Post nor AOL presumably have any intention of giving Colbert a dime for the content they (like us) have so brazenly re-posted from Comedy Central, Colbert launched a Huffington Post clone site, “The Colbuffington Re-Post,” which has “everything you love about the Huffington Post because it is the Huffington Post with a new border around it that says the Colbuffington Re-Post.”
The Huffington Post responded in the most appropriate of ways: By re-posting the clip of Colbert announcing the Colbuffington Re-Post, along with a very Colbert-esque write-up:
Nation, we here at The Huffington Post aim to bring you the finest news anywhere, which is why we present the Colbuffington Re-Post. Clearly this rising media titan, with top-notch story selection and brilliantly crafted headlines, couldn’t have been made without the smartest and best looking editors on the internet
Colbert’s hilarious evisceration of The Huffington Post‘s controversial publishing practices comes at a time when AOL plans to increasingly flood the Internet with quickly-produced content, similar to that which is found on Huff. Po., in an attempt to combat plummeting online ad revenue.
Google, however, is working in the opposite direction, having just launched an extension for its Chrome browser that allows users to block certain site, especially content farms, which The Huffington Post arguably is — at least, that’s what critics (and comedians) seem to believe.
Watch the Colbert clip below:
