Huffington Post’s debut drew harsh ridicule from mainstream critics.

Evidence

Some credited the idea, but in media it’s not the thought that counts; critics were harsher and louder. And no one came in for more abuse than the partner who’d lent her name. “Celebs to the Slaughter,” wrote LA Weekly: “Judging from Monday’s horrific debut of the humongously pre-hyped celebrity blog the Huffington Post, the Madonna of the mediapolitic world has undergone one reinvention too many. She has now made an online ass of herself….Her blog is such a bomb that it’s the movie equivalent of Gigli, Ishtar and Heaven’s Gate rolled into one.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 953

Categorization

• CANDY: The LA Weekly putdown comparing the site to ‘Gigli, Ishtar and Heaven’s Gate rolled into one’ is a fun, tweetable gotcha.
• XREF: Echoes the recurring theme of established media failing to recognize new attention-capture forms, as with earlier radio and TV dismissals.