We noted that last Wednesday, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith weirdly insisted to Tucker Carlson "people don't get into the business of reporting, I never did, because we are political activists. This is not the first, second or third things on our minds."
He added: "And I think political activists who in good faith accuse journalists of being activists are basically projecting. They say, "I'm primarily motivated by politics, these journalists must also be." I just don't think, that's not the newsroom conversation, I don't think in any of these newsrooms, or not most of them."
The Daily Caller reported on Thursday that BuzzFeed staffers were horrified at the prospect of a Trump victory. "Screenshots from BuzzFeed’s private chat site show the website’s staff members joking about a potential assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump."
“Maybe someone will assassinate him,” quipped Maycie Thornton, BuzzFeed’s Director of Social Media, according to screenshots from the website’s Slack group obtained by Big League Politics.
“Lol,” responds Nick Guillory, Social Media Strategist for BuzzFeed’s food vertical.
“Lol Maycie I have thought the same thing,” chimes in Kari Koeppel, the site’s Video Research Manager, after which Guillory writes “but I meannnnnnnnn [sic].”
Trump supporter Tim Treadstone, a former BuzzFeed staffer, provided the screenshots to the website Big League Politics and spoke to the site about this incident, as well as BuzzFeed’s treatment of conservatives.
“This was not the first time BuzzFeed employees talked openly about wishing President Trump would get assassinated,” he claimed. “They hated conservatives so much they even held an office party when Justice Scalia died. It was a toxic environment and you were declared a heretic if you were a Trump supporter, bottom line.”
Somehow, BuzzFeed tried to argue that the Social Media Director is not a "news" employee, but an entertainment employee. “While the remark in question is regrettable, it was made in private by someone who is not a reporter nor even an employee of BuzzFeed News,” said Matt Mittenthal, a spokesman for BuzzFeed News. “Attempting to turn a throwaway comment from an entertainment employee into evidence of bias at an affiliated news division is ludicrous.”
Several BuzzFeed employees confirmed that the site discriminated against Treadstone because of his conservatism, reported Business Insider, which also noted he was a Rand Paul supporter but his BuzzFeed time caused him to embrace the political incorrectness of the Trumpers. Ben Smith denied Treadstone’s account on Carlson's show on Wednesday.
