MSNBC's Ratigan: Arianna Huffington 'Voice of Truth,' 'Role Model'
MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan took time out his Friday show to send a special message to the founder of the left-wing Huffington Post blog: "happy birthday to a good friend of the show.... Miss Arianna Huffington, earlier this week, turned 60 years young and had quite the celebration.... I had the privilege of being able to join her."
Not content with simply wishing her a happy birthday, Ratigan went on to declare: "Arianna Huffington, who represents such a voice of truth and the highest aspiration for any individual that hopes to improve themselves each and every day, as they go through their days, to be better, not only for themselves, but to those around them." He concluded: "I believe she is a role model for all of us in that regard and couldn't be happier for her."
In reality, the Huffington Post has been far from a "voice of truth," let alone representing anyone's "highest aspiration." As a 2007 Media Research Center report, Huffington's House of Horrors, detailed, "the HuffPost's content reveals that flame-throwing, name-calling, and hate speech against conservatives are all on the Web site's everyday menu."
Given Ratigan's own incendiary nature, displayed regularly on his show, perhaps Huffington truly is his "role model."
Here is a transcript of Ratigan's July 16 birthday message to Huffington:
4:48PM ET
And also, happy birthday to a good friend of the show. It's been kind of a hatched, matched and dispatched kind of week, right? Miss Arianna Huffington, earlier this week, turned 60 years young and had quite the celebration. We had - I had the privilege of being able to join her and it was quite the fet. Pictures that go back to, well, relatively recent years, shall we say. No word on whether some of these were taken in just the past year. You can see a couple here from the party.
But the life and times of Arianna Huffington, who represents such a voice of truth and the highest aspiration for any individual that hopes to improve themselves each and every day, as they go through their days, to be better, not only for themselves, but to those around them. I believe she is a role model for all of us in that regard and couldn't be happier for her. Happy birthday, Arianna.
-Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
