Amidst the hue and cry over the contributions Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp  has given to republican organizations comes word that the left leaning website HuffPo is helping to sponsor Jon Stewart’s Restoring Sanity rally in Washington.

From The Wrap

Arianna Huffington’s surprise gift to Jon Stewart — a convoy of shuttle buses to his “Rally to Restore Sanity” in Washington — was an even bigger surprise to the folks at the Huffington Post.

And the cost of the grand gesture — an estimated $250,000 for 100 buses for thousands of New Yorkers — is making some of Huffington Post’s finance executives wince, according to insiders.

HuffPo’s President Greg Coleman agreed that the gesture came a surprise, but denied that there was any internal tension as a result.

“Arianna has a sixth sense for promotion, for capturing lots of attention,” said Coleman in an interview with TheWrap. “We were surprised when she made that offer. She didn’t tell us. But inside the Huffington Post this does nothing to hurt our revenues.”

Coleman is working to entice sponsors to underwrite the gesture, and turn the surprise into a revenue bonus.

“What we’re working on is turning this into an opportunity. Working with largest marketers in country to sponsor this Sanity Bus Tour. This one is going to cost us some money, and we are looking at this as an opportunity.”

A spokesman for HuffPo told TheWrap that 11,000 people had already signed up for the buses as of late last week.

Huffington confirmed to TheWrap that she made the sudden decision during her Sept. 28 visit to “The Daily Show.”

“Jon and I were talking in the green room about the rally. I said, ‘Oh my God, how are those people going to get there?’ On the air I decided to make that offer, it was spontaneous, and nobody knew. My people were in the green room with me, and even they had no clue.”

To Stewart’s delight and apparent surprise, the new-media mogul pledged “as many buses as there are people to fill them” from Huffpo’s headquarters in Manhattan to the comedian’s Oct. 30 rally on the Washington Mall.

This gesture may make some of HuffPo’s bloggers a little hot under the collar, not because she is sponsoring something they probably agree with but the fact that she so willingly put up $250,000 while continuing to pay them little or no money for material that is far more valuable to the site than a sponsorship.

As for the mainstream media don’t expect to see much if anything written on this sponsorship which is far different than the treatment Murdoch has received for his albeit larger contributions to the GOP.

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