Arianna and Keith: Changing Partners

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeTwo progressive icons, Arianna Huffington and Keith Olbermann, have moved on with their professional lives.

First, Huffington.  She has gone from being a conservative pundit who was married to a Republican congressman, to becoming an Internet mogul with a popular website while continuing to appear all over TV as a commentator.

The website she co-founded, The Huffington Post, was bought by AOL for $315 million.  Huffington will now be chairing a new media group that oversees HuffPo and other AOL properties.

AOL, which used to be known as the dial-up service America Online (you did throw out those start-up discs, didn't you?), hasn't been relevant in years since their disastrous merger with Time Warner.  In fact, it came as a surprise to most people that AOL was still in business.

So what is AOL getting for its money besides having Arianna on its payroll?   They get a left-leaning news site that aggregates content from all over, with little that's original besides unpaid celebrity bloggers and the latest dish on the Kardashian sisters.

Fans of the liberal persuasion are concerned that Arianna has sold out literally and figuratively, and they fear that HuffPo might become more mainstream in its viewpoint.  Like we said, Arianna wasn't always a liberal.  Time will tell if this new venture can bridge the gap between right and left.

As for Olbermann, who recently quit MSNBC in a huff, he's going to work for former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV channel with a new show to debut in the spring.  Besides owning stock in the channel, Olbermann will also have the title of Chief News Officer.

Current TV, which runs mainly documentaries, can be found on satellite and some cable systems.  It bears no relation to The Current, a Twin Cities-based alternative music radio station that is owned by Minnesota Public Radio.

We have no idea what Olbermann's new show is about, but we wonder if NBC claimed 'intellectual property' rights on the words 'countdown' and 'worst persons in the world' to prevent him from using those bits at his new network.  That is, the same kind of deal David Letterman and Conan O'Brien had when they left NBC in not exactly the best of terms.  But Olbermann's feud with Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck should continue.

When Olbermann suddenly left MSNBC, they reshuffled their prime-time lineup this way:  Lawrence O'Donnell in the old "Countdown" time slot, followed by Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz.  Right now they're having trouble competing with CNN (enjoying a resurgence because of their Egypt coverage), let alone Fox News Channel.

Both Arianna Huffington and Keith Olbermann deserve props for turning progressivism into a marketable commodity.   It's just that the smaller their platforms get, the less visible their causes become.  Just ask anyone who used to work for Air America Radio.