The Huffington Post expanded its reach into the political world recently by acquiring Pollster.com, a leading poll aggregation and analysis blog. The merger will significantly bolster the Huffington Post’s political coverage in the run up to the midterm elections this year. “It’s going to beef up our political coverage,” Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post’s founder and editor, told The New York Times.
The move is particularly interesting for the Huffington Post because Huffington has long criticized public polls and the role they play in political coverage. The move appears to be an acknowledgment of the prevalence of polls in political discourse. “Polling, whether we like it or not, is a big part of how we communicate about politics,” Huffington says. “And with this, we’ll be able to do it in a deeper way. We’ll be able to both aggregate polls, point out the limitations of them, and demand more transparency.”
Pollster.com’s Mark Blumenthal ensured that the work of Pollster.com would remain nonpartisan, despite the slant of the Huffington Post. In announcing the move, Blumenthal writes, “I would never claim to be without bias, but I have worked hard from day one to be thorough, accurate and fair. If Pollster has a reputation for straight-shooting commentary and non-partisan poll aggregation, it is because we never took our eyes off those goals.”