MOLI VIEW™

On Monday I wrote about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Huffington Post column of "uncovered" news stories he digs up from obscure publications like The New York Times. Although Kennedy uses the column to establish his journalistic credentials, stories he's written about vaccinations and voter fraud suggest that he's better suited to hang out with Mulder and Scully than Woodward and Bernstein.

In the past, I've expressed outrage that the Huffington Post doesn't pay its writers. (Apparently, Arianna believes young people should earn their money the old-fashioned way – by marrying it.) Now I'd like to look at the effect it has on the stories they run. As you'd expect from a site run by a woman who campaigned for California governor by railing against rich people who don't pay their share of taxes while paying no state income tax herself, it's not exactly democratic.

For all its hype, the Huffington Post is little more than a blackboard on which the rich and famous can scrawl anything they like. Sometimes they use the site to promote issues that they believe in – and I admire Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for doing so, even though I don't think he's more effective as an activist. Other times, they just sound silly, as NBC anchor Brian Williams' daughter did when she praised her father's performance on "Saturday Night Live." The problem is that many prominent people simply use the site to promote their personal agendas.

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