I’ve never actually liked Associated Content. I’m not even sure why. Maybe it’s the fact the site, with its 380,000 amateur freelance reporters, regularly shows up in Google News searches yet can’t quite be utilized as a reliable source. Or maybe it’s the Townhall-style annoying web design. Whatever the reason, I’m not a fan.

Evidently, however, Yahoo and 16 million monthly visitors are. The search engine giant (really? is it any more?) is purchasing the open-source news website for an undisclosed sum.

SAN FRANCISCO – Yahoo Inc. is buying freelance news site Associated Content in a deal that will add a more folksy touch to one of the world’s biggest Web sites.

Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

The acquisition announced Tuesday will enable Yahoo to supplement its regular lineup of stories by full-time reporters with independently produced material that typically isn’t covered by traditional media outlets.

Associated Content, launched in 2005 by Luke Beatty, bills itself as “the people’s media company.” It has developed a low-cost news model that relies on about 380,000 freelancers who share their expertise on a variety of subjects.

Uh huh. The current front page story for the Associated Content’s news hub is an hours-old story, “Pennsylvania May Reject Arlen Specter in Today’s Primary”, by a contributor whose expertise includes writing on everything under the sun that interests him and, oh yeah, having served as a news director at an unnamed defunct California radio station.

But that’s beside the point. Good for that guy. The other featured news items?

• Big Ten Expansion Possibility Presents Major Complications
• Five Hollywood Career Revivals Waiting to Happen
• Columbia Police Change Policy Following SWAT Drug Raid

Fun fact: The last story was written by a contributor to the Huffington Post and the Nation who lists an insult from G. Gordon Libby as the greatest compliment she’s ever received. Oh, and she has an essay featured alongside other essays from Ralph Nader and Naomi Klein in a new leftist book.

Look, I’m in no position to criticize a lack of credentials or bias. But I’m not going to appear in the Yahoo! News feed as a reliable, expert source on news of the day. I’m just a lowly blogger.

I get what Yahoo is trying to do. It’s trying to appear modern and open-source by publishing articles from amateur freelancers as reliable news articles. But I have a feeling it will turn people seeking actual, solid news away from the company’s news hub. I’m looking for news from a credentialed Associated Press reporter — not one of 380,000 Associated Content freelancers.