HuffPost told Americans it was shameful to wave the flag during the Olympics.
Now the man who just paid $120 million for it is hearing from Bill Maher exactly what he bought.
And Maher had one word for every writer in that building that Allen needs to hear before he writes another check.
The Magazine That Hated Its Own Readers
HuffPost has been a machine for one thing: telling normal Americans they're wrong.
It told you that chanting "USA!" at the Olympics was a sign of emotional dysfunction.
It told you that feeling pride while Team USA beat Canada in overtime hockey was something you needed a therapist to process.
https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/2077020392321880423?s=20
That was February 2026 – while American athletes were setting Winter Olympics gold medal records and millions of families were screaming at their TVs.
HuffPost's response was to publish a piece titled "There's A Name For The Discomfort You're Feeling Watching the Olympics Right Now."
The social media caption cut right to it: "If waving the American flag or chanting 'USA!' turns you off right now, you're not alone."
Rep. Randy Fine of Florida said what everyone was thinking: "Get the hell out of my country."
What Maher Said on the Podcast
Allen appeared on Maher's Club Random podcast Sunday and mentioned he'd just taken over BuzzFeed and HuffPost.
Maher didn't congratulate him.
"All these places have been horrible to me," Maher said – naming HuffPost specifically.
He went further: once Arianna Huffington left, the outlet became the most woke thing he'd ever seen – "ridiculous," he called it.
Then he unloaded on the people writing for it.
"All these places are a bunch of snarky millennial, probably nepo babies. I mean, I just know how these kids who have these jobs – how much they were indoctrinated before they got there. They are not America."
https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/2076632451833561438?s=20
Allen said he'd only owned the outlets for two or three weeks.
Maher's response: give it time.
"I don't want to call it a witch hunt, but frankly, that's what I hope it will be," he said.
The Pattern Nobody in Media Will Say Out Loud
BuzzFeed turned down a $1 billion offer from Disney in 2014.
By 2023, the company had shut down its entire news division and was trading at 22 cents a share.
HuffPost cut 22% of its newsroom – 30 editorial positions – in the year before Allen bought it.
Fifteen thousand media jobs evaporated across the industry in 2024 alone.
These outlets didn't fail because of bad luck or market conditions.
They failed because they decided their job was to tell their own readers they were emotionally broken for loving their country.
You can only do that for so long before people stop clicking.
What Allen Just Bought and What Maher Sees
Bill Maher is not a conservative.
He said it himself on the podcast – the Left treats him as worse than a Republican because he won't perform their purity rituals.
https://twitter.com/ResisttheMS/status/2076742204517757427?s=20
But even Maher – a man who has spent 30 years on HBO defending liberal politics – looked at what HuffPost publishes and called it "silly, insane revolutionary garbage from people who don't know facts, or history, or perspective."
When the guy who hosts Real Time says that about your newsroom, you don't have a perception problem.
You have a product problem.
Allen dropped $120 million on a publication so ideologically captured that one of Hollywood's most famous liberals sat across from him and called the staff indoctrinated nepo babies who "are not America."
The question now is whether Allen actually does something about it – or whether the staff runs out the clock until he figures out that woke doesn't sell.
Every left-wing digital media brand that refused to change is either bankrupt or a shell of itself.
He just paid $120 million to find out if HuffPost is different.
It isn't.
Sources:
- Hanna Panreck, "Bill Maher rips Buzzfeed, HuffPost to owner's face, says outlets are full of indoctrinated 'nepo babies'," Fox News, July 13, 2026.
- "Bill Maher Slams HuffPost as 'Woke' and 'Not American' to New Owners' Face," Mediaite, July 13, 2026.
- "HuffPost faces backlash over article about feeling 'discomfort' rooting for USA," Fox News, February 23, 2026.
- "Conservatives, GOP lawmakers slam HuffPost critique on displays of patriotism at Olympics," Washington Times, February 23, 2026.
- "Progressive news site HuffPost plans on cutting 30 editorial journalists due to 'growing challenges'," Fox Business, January 9, 2025.
- "Media job cuts hit 15,000 last year, and 2025 won't reverse the trend," eMarketer, January 16, 2025.