Bloggasm

I found it odd when I heard the news that the Si Newhouse School’s journalism awards would include a “lifetime achievement” award for Arianna Huffington — an award that went to the late Tim Russert last year. Odd because though Huffington has technically been involved with different media outlets since the 1980s, she really didn’t become what many would consider a major media figure until after the launch of The Huffington Post in mid-2005.

Here is the section on Huffington’s Television, radio and Internet presence at Wikipedia:

In the 1970s, on the strength of her prominence in the Cambridge Union, Arianna Stassinopoulos was a frequent panelist on the weekly BBC Radio 4 political discussion programme, Any Questions?, and the BBC television the panel games Call My Bluff and Face the Music.
Huffington is co-host of the nationally syndicated public radio program Left, Right & Center. She was originally introduced by the moderator as occupying the chair “from the right”, but is now described as “coming from the fourth dimension of political time and space”, or from the “independent-progressive blogosphere”.[citation needed] In May 2007, she and Mark J. Green began co-hosting a new radio show on Air America Radio, 7 Days in America.

Huffington also has an Internet presence with her website The Huffington Post, which features blogs and commentary from her and from a number of prominent journalists, public officials, and celebrities. The site also highlights news stories from various sources.

Prior to The Huffington Post, Huffington hosted a website called Ariannaonline.com. Her first foray into the Internet was a website called Resignation.com, which called for the resignation of President Bill Clinton and was a rallying place for conservatives opposing Clinton.

Huffington was accused of plagiarism for copying material for her book Maria Callas; the claims were settled out of court.[11]

In November 2008, Fox announced Huffington would be joining the voice cast of the upcoming Seth MacFarlane animated series The Cleveland Show, where she will lend her voice to the wife of Tim the Bear.[12]

On November 17, 2008, Huffington substituted for Rachel Maddow on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show. Some have put forward the idea that she is in the running for a more permanent role as commentator or anchor at MSNBC. [13]

Huffington was spoofed by actress Michaela Watkins on the November 22, 2008, episode of Saturday Night Live. [14]

Huffington was also spoofed on the first series of Tracy Ullman’s show State of the Union in 2008

And here’s a bit more on other media projects she worked on:

In the late 1980s, Huffington wrote several articles for National Review. In 1981, she wrote a biography of Maria Callas, Maria Callas — The Woman Behind the Legend, and in 1996 a biography of Pablo Picasso, Picasso: Creator and Destroyer. In 1996, Huffington and liberal comedian Al Franken participated as “Strange Bedfellows”[6] in Comedy Central’s coverage of the 1996 U.S. presidential election. For her work, she and the writing team of Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher were nominated for an Emmy, for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program. She has also made a few forays into acting with roles on shows such as Roseanne, The L Word, Help Me Help You, and the film EdTV.[7]

Compare this to the previous award recipient, Tim Russert, who spent 16 years moderating the legendary Meet the Press and was Washington bureau chief for NBC before that.

I enjoy it when new media pioneers get nods from old media institutions — I was delighted when TPM’s Joshua Marshall won a Polk award — but are we getting a little too trigger happy in this instance? Or am I just being overly critical?