Huffington Post Responds to Colbert by Repurposing Colbert's Site

As a response to Stephen Colbert's joking on The Colbert Report about "The Colbuffington Re-Post"—a site, identical in all particulars but name to the Huffington Post, that he planned to sell for $316 million—the Huffington Post announced its own new initiative, The Huffbert Nation. As one might guess, the site, though on a huffingtonpost.com URL, is precisely the same one as Colbert's "Colbert Nation." Again, all that's changed is the name—and the face at the top of the site, now Arianna's. In an email to the Observer, HuffPost spokesperson Mario Ruiz writes: "Our comedy team put it up. [Ruiz noted the HuffPost's tech team's involvement in a second email.] Yes, the site is constantly updated—it's their site! I mean, it's our site!"

The Observer's mind now bent, we referred back to the HuffPost piece on the subject, "Check out the site (it's live) for all your favorite Colbert news, video and community with a HuffPost twist." The "twist" is limited to Arianna's face and the first four letters of her surname at the site's top. All right, Stephen and Arianna, you've had your fun—but don't you know that repurposing other people's content under the Huffington brand tends to make Arianna a little less popular?

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_