White House Advisor's Son Joins HuffPost In Colorado

FishbowlDC reported last night that White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod has a reason to be a proud papa today. His 22-year-old son, Ethan Axelrod, has managed to snag a highly coveted job in journalism right out of college, working for the Huffington Post as the editor of its new local edition in Denver. "I've been interested in journalism for a while," Ethan told The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, who got the exclusive on the story. "I heard through my father that they were expanding, so I applied for it." HuffPo's Denver page will be similar to the New York edition, which launched at the end of last month. It will debut in September, Kurtz said. Meanwhile, on of the Denver page's competitors, the Denver Westword was not shy about voicing its thoughts on Ethan's new gig. "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," Westword reporter Joe Tone wrote. And, to be fair, the hiring of a young college grad with no journalism experience by the liberal-leaning online pub is pretty suspect. His last name and White House connections definitely had to play a role. Tone calls HuffPo's decision "an interesting play": 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. It's a very good point, made scathingly by a local competitor that Ethan will undoubtedly be running into at events around town. But maybe the Denver paper is just upset that it was denied an interview with the new editor. "We wanted to interview young Axelrod, but were told they weren't doing media," Tone said. "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." Looks like someone will be keeping tabs on Ethan's tenure, and it's up to him to prove that he was a better hiring choice than all the other experienced, unemployed journalists in Denver.

Fishbowl

White House Advisor's Son Joins HuffPost In Colorado

Amanda Ernst

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Amanda Ernst