Dear Me, Congratulations on getting your by-line on The Huffington Post. We’re glad you decided to give us publishing rights to your content for free. We hope you enjoy your experience here. We’re awesome. Welcome.

THE DAY I WAS WELCOMED TO THE HUFFINGTON POST BY ARIANNA HERSELF, I WAS THRILLED.

And the succession of 50 odd posts I got published on the site was also a thrill.

And I generated quite a bit of traffic for my blog The Whole Parent. It was a match made in heaven. I was writing a positive co-parenting blog and The Huffington Post was benefiting (still benefits) from my writing. What I got in return was traffic, a by-line and bio page on The Huffington Post. Boom. I had arrived as a writer.

Then last November, as in a year and 2 months ago, my last post appeared on The Huffington Post under the Fitness and Lifestyle banner. See, I’d been doing so good, I had started publishing from another blog on The Huffington Post as well. But without a whimper or reason, my publishing never progressed beyond submission. And I continued to submit my work religiously.

In general they do reserve the right to NOT publish your work. But I had a 95% publish ratio. We liked each other. I even had a viral hit that was published under the Women banner. It was about dating.

You know, they even wrote a piece on me about being a divorced dad and my divorce survival skills. Another great honor. I started asking the [email protected] questions about what was going on. And I got ZERO responses.

I still have no idea what happened. Does The Huffington Post have a kill button that censors a writer, causing their posts not to show up in the slush pool of available articles? Did someone take offense to something I had written? Had I gotten too big for my britches? Well, it wouldn’t be so bad if I had a clue what I did, or who black-listed me. But I heard crickets.

So I reached out directly to Adrianna. She, in fact, is who personally invited me to the Post. I reached out to the editors of each of the sections I had published with before. Health and Lifestyle, Parenting, Dating, Divorce, Dads. And somewhere along the chain of command, even their responses were shut down. I heard nothing. It seemed there was nothing I could do, but stop publishing, or trying to publish on The Huffington Post.

But my publishing credentials are still live. They are still generating traffic from my content. And they are still not publishing any of my writing. I’m ready to take this to the next level. Now it’s personal.

Let’s look at the editorial board for my biggest section DIVORCE.

I’m pretty sure Brittany is the woman who wrote the Huff Po piece on me. Let’s go see…

7 Things That Helped This Single Dad Feel Whole Again Post-Split by Brittany Wong

Then something funny and fishy happened.

Update 8-20-15:  I got a Twitter response from Sr. Women’s Editor Emma Gray. And just as I responded to her she deleted the tweet. (Before I was able to screen grab it. But I have the traces captured elsewhere.) Then, I’m pretty sure she MUTED me on Twitter. (A first for me.)

So when she tweeted back to me she said, "That’s above my purview." She was saying, she had no idea why I was being prevented from getting any articles published. Why then would she DELETE the Tweet and BLOCK me on Twitter? Was I being abusive? Did someone tell her I’m a pervert, or a dead beat dad, or something that makes me offensive? I don’t know. And since she’s muted me on Twitter she doesn’t even see when I tweet at her. BAD FORM Emma Gray BAD FORM HUFFINGTON POST.

So the woman who wrote the nice post on me and my divorce survival strategy doesn’t have the time to respond to me? Or she’s not allowed to tell me what’s going on? Both of which are awful concepts.

One thing is certain: The Huffington Post is being run by children. Low cost millennials who are happy to work for recognition and ego strokes. Titles like Editor and Executive Editor on one of the globe’s leading media publishing companies. Pretty impressive to me, as well. But the youngsters are running Adrianna’s empire as she continues to cut media deals.

Adrianna had a vision for The Huffington Post. She’s too busy with her GMP and Good News love fest to pay attention to what’s going on in the inner workings of her Blog Team. And why should she. We know the power of the Huffington Post is politics. And we’re ramping up for a doozy of an election year.

So I’ve been swept under the proverbial rug. But I won’t go quietly. It’s time to blast and blanket the editorial team until I get an answer. I’ll start with the woman who wrote the piece on me. Let’s see if I can get a single response out of a single human being (young human being) about why I can’t get any of my 30+ submissions published, when I still have 50 articles live on The Huffington Post.

John McElhenney Huffington Post Archive

I never give up. The dream was big when I got accepted and added Huffington Post author to my material. Today, it’s been a year and 2 months since they pushed on of my articles live. I’m still writing at the top of my game, and still writing about positive post-divorce strategies for parenting, dating, and staying healthy. What’s not to love?

I’ve still got Brittany’s email address. Let’s see if she will share some information about WHAT’S GOING ON AT THE HUFFINGTON POST?

My by-line Googled: John McElhenney

John McElhenney

@jmacofearth (also seen on Google+: jmacofearth)

permalink: https://uber.la/2016/02/the-huffington-post-lie/

More writing on The Huffington Post Problem:

• What Is Click Bait? How The Huffington Post Will Ape For Your Clicks
  
  That ^^ was click bait. Shibas stuck in funny places. Very funny. Very clickable, shareable, and vacuous. Click bait is fine, it’s what we do when we need a break from all the seriousness around us. Click on! Buzzfeed is click bait. That’s what they do.
• Why Are We Losing Men’s Voices on The Huffington Post? Why It’s A Big Issue.
  
  I tried asking questions first. For a month. And got no reply from any of the Blog Team or directly from Arianna. Dear Huffington Post, WTF Is Going On with You? So, I guess I need to dig a bit deeper to see if I can understand what’s going on with the conversation
• Dear Huffington Post, WTF Is Going On with You? (IGNORED – 9 Months)
  
  Dear Arianna and The Huffington Post, Can you please start publishing my content again. It helps. I like The Huffington Post. I like being part of [email protected] But I don’t like being ignored.

My correspondence with Arianna Huffington:

And today I wrote Arianna a letter. Sure, the odds are low on getting any response from her, but I have to keep trying.