Former Buzzfeed Chief on the End of a Media Era

Click here for the full interview with Ben Smith: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/former-buzzfeed-chief-on-the-end?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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The era of corporate media is dying. The future is independent.

Ben Smith, former Buzzfeed chief and New York Times media columnist, is the founder of Semafor, a news site which, unlike corporate rags who pretend otherwise, doesn’t hide the author’s opinion. Check it out here.

Ben joins Useful Idiots to explain the beginnings of the internet age of media that led to Obama’s election, the rise and demise of outlets like Buzzfeed News and Vice, and describes what he sees as the next era. And yes, it includes Useful Idiots.

Watch the full episode where Ben debates Aaron on the Durham Report, which this week showed that the six-year story of collusion between Trump and Russia was a hoax led by corporate media. Buzzfeed, with Ben in charge, was the first outlet to publish the Steele Dossier in 2017. When Aaron challenges him on this, things get heated.

Then, as an ex-Times writer, Ben exposes the biggest clusterf*ck from his years at the paper, a notorious example of choosing traffic over truth. Hear his report in the full interview.

And speaking of Traffic, check out Ben Smith’s new book on media genius, rivalry, and delusion in the billion-dollar race to go viral.

0:00 Intro
1:21 The Four Food Groups of News
16:40 Ben Smith interview
17:37 What happened to Buzzfeed?
26:27 Why the internet helped Obama win
30:38 The rise of Breitbart and Bannon
34:38 Russiagate debate: the Durham Report