How Ben Smith Turned BuzzFeed Into a Hate Site
by John Nolte3 Apr 2015
Just before Christmas Eve weekend in December of 2013, a
young New
York-based communications director fired off a tweet before stepping
on a plane to Africa. The tweet was a joke about hoping she didn’t contact AIDS
while visiting the continent. It could have been offensive. It could have been
a poorly worded comment about her own white privilege. Fueled by a toxic mix of
sanctimony and self-righteousness, no one cared to wait and find out.
By the time this young woman’s plane landed some hours
later, the mindless Internet mob had devastated her life. She was fired,
infamous throughout the world, and would drive the news cycle for the next few
days.
There were two unforgivable sins at work here. The first was
sadistically pulling the wings off this young woman’s life without giving an
unclear joke the benefit of the doubt, or at least giving her a chance to
explain. The worst sin of all, though, was targeting a nobody — an everyday,
powerless private person who is neither in a position of real power or a public
figure. She was a plaything for the worst people in the world, and BuzzFeed
gleefully directed and poured rocket fuel on the mob.
This wasn’t bullying, it was savagery.
More than a year later, this poor woman, who did nothing
wrong, is just now starting to put her life back together.
More than a year later, BuzzFeed, a site that poses as a
serious and objective news organization, chose not to learn anything from its
unconscionable behavior and the consequence of it. In fact, all BuzzFeed appears
to have learned is how to better point online mobs in the direction of
powerless people who have done absolutely nothing wrong.
In a blaring headline Wednesday, BuzzFeed lied about
Memories Pizza, a small pizzeria in Indiana that, through no fault of their
own, found their life’s work destroyed in fewer than 36 hours.
When targeted by local hooligans
disguised as local reporters, one of the owners said the following, and did so
clearly:
The O’Connor family told ABC 57 news that if a gay couple or
a couple belonging to another religion came in to the restaurant to eat, they
would never deny them service.
The O’Connors say they just don’t agree with gay marriages
and wouldn’t cater them if asked to.
Naturally, the local hooligans chose to put the fact that
the O’Connors would never deny anyone service at the bottom of their propaganda
piece.
Here’s the first lie BuzzFeed fed to its mob:
Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Ind. is making news today for
its announcement that it will not cater gay weddings[.]
That’s not just a lie, that’s a goddamned lie. Memories
Pizza made no announcement. They were ambushed by hooligans and expressed an
opinion.
That lie, however, was not the worst BuzzFeed would tell.
Although BuzzFeed has since memory-holed the headline, its
biggest piece on the story blared the following lie to the online world: “Indiana Pizzeria Owner Say
They’d Deny LGBT People Service.” This, despite the fact the owner
said the exact opposite.
BuzzFeed certainly wasn’t alone in their gleeful cheering on
of the destruction of a powerless small business that was minding their own
business. But they are one of the biggest, baddest, proudest, and most
shameless.
BuzzFeed also has history. There’s no remorse. No sense of
decency. No deep breath. Just more of the same.
Thursday night, BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief Ben Smith tried to BenSmith away
his own culpability in this tragedy:
Nothing to see here, folks. Just a fascinating online social
phenomenon. Yeah, we poured hate-fuel all over these powerless, innocent
people, repeatedly lied about them, and then changed our libelous headline
without making an editor’s note. But watch me tap my chin over all of this to
try and convince you and myself that I’m not a villain.
A Christian who politely declines to participate, or worse,
profit from the sacramentalization of sin that is a same sex marriage ceremony, is a good Christian and person – a
person no different than a Muslim who does not want to handle pork for your
catered picnic or a gay printer who does not want to publish Westboro Baptist
Church literature.
BuzzFeed’s online and ongoing role as an intolerant,
hate-spewing bully is a feature, not a bug.
BuzzFeed
Kenneth
B. Lerer is the chairman of BuzzFeed,
an advisory board member for Everytown
for Gun Safety, and was the chairman for the Public Theater.
Note: Michael R.
Bloomberg is the founder of Everytown
for Gun Safety, a co-chair for Mayors
Against Illegal Guns, was a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, and a donor for the Robin Hood Foundation.
George
Soros was a benefactor for the Harlem
Children's Zone, and the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Harlem Children's Zone, the Robin
Hood Foundation., and the International
Rescue Committee.
Robert W. Pittman
is a director at the Robin Hood
Foundation, a friend of Tom Brokaw,
and was a trustee at the Public Theater.
Tom
Brokaw was a director at the Robin
Hood Foundation, is a friend of Robert
W. Pittman, and an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee.
Clifford S.
Asness was a leadership council member for the Robin Hood Foundation, supported same-sex marriage in New York, and is a director at the International Rescue Committee.
Raben
Group is at lobby firm for Mayors
Against Illegal Guns.
Melody
C. Barnes was a principal at the Raben
Group, and is Barack Obama’s
golf partner.
Barack
Obama is Melody C. Barnes’s golf
partner, and was an intern at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin
LLP.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Newton
N. Minow is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.
Faith Elizabeth
Gay was an attorney at Sidley Austin
LLP, and is a trustee at the Public
Theater.
Kenneth
B. Lerer was the chairman for the Public
Theater, is the chairman of BuzzFeed,
and an advisory board member for Everytown
for Gun Safety.
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