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UPDATE: HuffPo is also looking for an editor in Los Angeles, LAWeekly.com reports. Rahm Emanuel’s daughter is said to be considering the job, but is “worried it might conflict with ballet practice.”
ORIGINAL POST: On the off chance you were worried the Huffington Post would abandon its storied brand of knee-jerk Obama-ism when it waded into local news, rest easy: Westword learned today that the news site’s forthcoming Denver section will be manned by a guy who literally has to toe the party line, for fear of being uninvited to Thanksgiving dinner.
Ethan Axelrod — the 22-year-old son of top Obama adviser David Axelrod — has been named the editor of HuffPo Denver, the site confirmed today.
It’s not a shock, obviously; HuffPo would probably let Sasha and Malia co-write a fantasy football column if they asked. But still: Especially in the wake of the Rocky’s death, there’s a bit of a dearth of astute local news coverage in town, and some liberal readers no doubt have visions of HuffPo providing a new stop on their daily Internet-news train. That it will be manned by a 22-year-old college grad with no professional journalism experience who’s barely (if ever) lived in Denver — and who happens to be the seed of the President’s top offensive coordinator — is certainly an interesting play.
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We wanted to interview young Axelrod, but were told they weren’t doing media. By which they apparently meant that they weren’t doing media with anyone who wasn’t named Howard Kurtz, because not long after our inquiry, the Post’s media critic reported the move, complete with an interview with the kid:
Ethan Axelrod is joining the Huffington Post, the liberal Web site that has been largely supportive of President Obama. His dad, now a White House senior adviser, was a Chicago Tribune reporter until he quit in 1984 to help run a Senate campaign (and still has a soft spot for newspapers, though his old one is in bankruptcy).“I’ve been interested in journalism for a while,” the 22-year-old Axelrod said Tuesday. “I heard through my father that they were expanding, so I applied for it.”
And he got it. So: Welcome to town, Ethan. Holler once you’re done with all the important guys. We’ll show you around and get you hammered and ask you all about your dad’s mustache. That thing’s intense.
