AOL Writer Leaves Because Arianna “Alarms” Him

Matt Lewis, a writer for AOL’s Politics Daily, is leaving for Tucker Carlson’s conservative Daily Caller because he doesn’t want to work for someone perceived as “a far-left liberal.”

…while I have loved my tenure at PD, recent news that AOL had acquired The Huffington Post — and that Arianna Huffington would become editor in chief of many AOL sites — alarmed me…

…it occurs to me that AOL has vastly underestimated the public perception (I would argue the accurate impression) that Huffington is a far-left liberal.

Obviously, I am more than happy to write for a mainstream news outlet where differing opinions are allowed to flourish, but I am less comfortable with the notion of being permanently affiliated with an overtly left-of-center (sometimes activist) outlet.

As a conservative (albeit, an admittedly iconoclastic one), it is vital that I maintain the freedom to call them like I see them.

On PBS’ NewsHour Monday, Huffington said, “It’s time for all of us in journalism to move beyond left and right. Truly, it is an obsolete way of looking at the problems America is facing.” She may well be right, and it is doubtful that AOL will want to be identified as having a particular political ideology. The bigger question is whether liberals will follow Arianna there and embrace AOL with the same passion they did Huffington Post.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.