According to the most read article on the Huffington Post this morning “If you type the key words ‘children’ and ‘bikini’ into an Internet search engine, you’ll find tens of thousands of results for child bikini contests.” In that sentence is the explanation for why the search engine optimised website is running a story – with a picture* – of an under-age girl in a bikini.

The editorially left-wing website campaigns against The Sun’s page 3 photos yet hypocritically boasts “Side Boob” – paparazzi pictures of celebs revealing more boob than they might wish – is the most popular part of the website. This is an attempt to have their cake and eat it, Carla Buzazi, the editor of HuffPo oversees a site with content bordering on soft porn that professes to be right-on when actually it is commercially cynical.   It poses as a left-wing operation – going as far as hiring left-wing firebrand political commentator Mehdi Hasan – whilst simultaneously pretending to be a Luxembourg-controlled corporation to avoid UK taxes. In 2011 after AOL paid $315 million for HuffPo the unpaid blog writers filed a class action demanding a share of the payout. AOL fought the claim and paid the striking writers not a cent. Is Mehdi proud of his employer?

Former political editor Chris Wimpress has quit the site, he’d had enough and directly blamed Mehdi’s appointment, other staff are keen to escape and applying for jobs elsewhere. 5 staff have resigned in recent months, 3 without jobs to go to. Jimmy Maymann, AOL’s senior vice-president responsible for HuffPo told the Monaco Media Forum last week that AOL are unwinding the integration with HuffPo, “we’ve taken a step back — Huffington Post, within AOL, is a standalone business. Only with that way can you unlock the full potential…We are giving a two-year period to break even…”  Claiming “right now AOL is a good owner for Huffington Post and we’ll keep it.” A signal the site could be sold by AOL in the not too distant future…

*We have blurred the image. HuffPo’s editor Carla Buzazi told Leveson that the site had joined the Press Complaints Commission and abides by the PCC Code of Practice, that picture almost certainly breaches the code.

He’s sorry, he’s sorry, he’s so, so sorry… Eoin Clarke has been busy apologising again this afternoon. Clarke came to prominence with his seminal PhD study of the history of Irish feminism entitled ‘Feck arf, get me dinner’ and has now risen to the very top of his new field: conspiratorial online left-wing smearing. Last month he was forced to grovel to Ashcroft for smearing him with false allegations, then it was Health Minister Anna Soubry, and now the left-wing loony has had to apologise to Circle Health:

“In several posts on my blog “The Green Benches” in 2012, I made a number of defamatory statements about Circle Health. I now acknowledge that there was no truth to those statements … I would like to offer my sincere apologies to Circle Health for any inconvenience and damage which the untrue statements in my blog have caused. I have removed the offending posts from the blog and undertaken not to repeat the allegations which I made.”

You have to wonder what Eoin’s only reader – Ed Miliband – has to say about it all.

They’re having a bit of a nightmare over at Political Scrapbook towers this afternoon. Borrowing a quote from the Racing Post, the lefty blog ran a story that David Cameron had snubbed a phone call with Barack Obama because he was playing tennis with Rebekah Brooks’ husband, Charlie. Funny they weren’t so vocal about Gordon Brown pathetically begging Obama five times for a fifteen minute meeting in a kitchen, or Tony Blair bombing countries on the whim of an American president. In terms of the special relationship, a stand-up-for-yourself Hugh Grant-style approach should surely be cheered…

In any case, it looks like the story has little foundation anyway:

No10 'baffled' by claim Cameron snubbed Obama call for tennis game. No calls from president during 3 weekends Brooks stayed at Chequers

— James Chapman (@jameschappers) September 27, 2012

No10 source: 'Calls between PM and president are scheduled by officials, there's an agenda. This story simply can't be true.'

— James Chapman (@jameschappers) September 27, 2012

Doh!

UPDATE: King of spin Damian McBride has another explanation:

I'm guessing Obama wasn't really on the phone & that's just the pre-agreed 'out' the clerks always give Cam once a meeting has run an hour.

— Damian McBride (@DPMcBride) September 27, 2012

Touchy Tom Watson tends to get testy when people bring up his links with the lefties Political Scrapbook. He pointedly told the Leveson Inquiry that he had nothing to do with them, which was news to some:

Watson:“I know the guy, the young guy that runs it. I have no relationship with it in terms of management or anything else.”

Jay: “Have you provided information to them for their use?”

Watson: “No.”

Watson would have us believe there is no cosy relationship here, despite obviously feeding them stories. Fellow Labour MP Kerry McCarthy let the cat out of the bag this weekend though when she revealed Scrapbook‘s special guest for their Labour party conference shindig:

Attention again Labour conference goers. This year's tweet-up is the @psbook party, 7.30, Town Hall, Weds 3rd, with @tom_watson DJ-ing.

— Kerry McCarthy (@KerryMP) September 8, 2012

Hmm, surely that comes under “or anything else”.

This year’s Tory party conference fringe events are jam-packed with the usual suspects, however Guido was amused to see the name of one surprise guest due to speak on Tuesday lunchtime. LibDem blogger Mark Pack will give a training session on “campaigning with social media“:

Coalicious… 

Last week Guido revealed how bankrupt bloggers Left Foot Forward were in such dire financial straits that they had resorted to advertising for slave labour interns. After managing to raise only a third of their target since the online busking began, a “generous donor” has now agreed to match every pound given in a double-your-money guarantee. Judging by the furious reaction of their readers to the news that they were refusing to even pay for lunch and travel expenses for their unpaid young staff, it’s hardly surprising they are relying on a wealthy individual to keep them afloat. Maybe if they paid their interns people would be more willing to part with their cash…