Arianna Huffington created the Huffington Post online news aggregator partly because she is Greek "and bringing together people from different worlds and different viewpoints and creating interesting conversations has always been a part of my Greek DNA".
She tells the Financial Mail that her idea from the moment she created the site was for it to take conversations that happen at water coolers and around dinner tables — about politics, art, movies, books, sex and food — and create a never-ending space for them.
How has the Huffington Post changed the media landscape?
The old model was that people were presented with a news story by the media, and that, by and large, was that. The Huffington Post helped pioneer a model of participation, in which people take part in the stories that shape their communities.
So why did you leave it?
I always thought the creation of the Huffington Post would be my last [ venture]. But since publishing my books Thrive and The Sleep Revolution , I’ve become more passionate about burnout stress and how we can reduce its impact on our lives ... So I founded Thrive Global. And when I did, I expected to continue leading both companies. But as Thrive Global ramped up, it became clear this was an illusion.
Famously, you shifted from being a conservative to a liberal. What caused this shift?
There’s been no change in my political heart. What has changed is my understanding of the role of government . I used to believe that the private sector could address the issues our country was facing: income inequality, equal opportunity and the need to care for those left out of America’s prosperity. W hat changed is my belief that, in fact, we can’t address these problems without the power, scale, resources and agenda-setting [power] of government action.
What irks you most about traditional media?
It’s the idea that the media’s job is simply to present two sides to everything with no context. But not every story has two sides and the truth is often found on one side or the other. Evolution is a fact. Global warming is a fact. But pretending the truth is always in the middle, and worshipping the idea of balance over truth, has allowed the political discourse to drift off course.
Do you see similarities between the populist leaders today?
People have lost faith in establishment institutions . This creates a vacuum and an opportunity for voices outside the establishment. Some of these have more legitimacy than others.