Thread: BuzzFeed Decides Trump is the Only Republican Candidate Too Odious For Native Ads

BuzzFeed Decides Donald Trump is the Only Republican Candidate Too Odious For Native Advertising

Jordan Sargent
30 minutes ago



Image: AP

This morning, BuzzFeed announced it has killed a deal with the Republican National Committee to run ads across the website throughout this election season. In an email to staff, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Pereti said that the company decided to end the agreement because Donald Trump is simply too offensive:

Since signing this advertising deal, Donald Trump, as you know, has become the presumptive nominee of his party. The tone and substance of his campaign are unique in the history of modern US politics. Trump advocates banning Muslims from traveling to the United States, he’s threatened to limit the free press, and made offensive statements toward women, immigrants, descendants of immigrants, and foreign nationals.
Earlier today Buzzfeed informed the RNC that we would not accept Trump for President ads and that we would be terminating our agreement with them. The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs.

Declining to accept money to promote the ideals of Donald Trump is, in the end, a good thing. But it raises an obvious question: Would BuzzFeed have happily used the RNC to enrich itself had a different candidate, with views only a shade away from Trump’s, ended up being the nominee?

We can safely assume that BuzzFeed would not have killed this ad deal had the ill-fated tag-team of Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina, who were the last opponents to stand in Trump’s way, won the nomination. Cruz and Fiorina both appeared in scripted BuzzFeed videos last summer—Cruz did The Simpsonsimpersonations, Fiorina a video on sexism in the workplace. Each had just announced their bids for the presidency, but even then were happily campaigning on policies that easily could have been perceived as, to use Peretti’s words, being “directly opposed to the freedoms” of BuzzFeed’s employees.

For instance, both Cruz and Fiorina had already resisted a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, with Cruz proposing in Congress in 2013 that the undocumented be barred from ever receiving entitlement benefits from federal or state governments.

Cruz—who the Republican establishment warily embraced in the twilight of his candidacy—would go onto endorse Trump’s plan to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into the homes of undocumented citizens so that they could be hauled away and deported. He also said that if he were president he would have police forces “patrol” Muslim neighborhoods. The differences between Trump and Cruz—and by extension the Republican party—are not ones of substance, but of style.
BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith has already dodged the question of what the company would have done if another Republican had won the party’s nomination, referring to a statement in BuzzFeed’s announcement in which he noted that the decision “was Jonah’s call, and the prerogative of a publisher.”

Indeed it is, but that prerogative existed when Donald Trump was just a nuisance who would soon be dispensed by the Republican candidates serious and good enough to, say, do cheeky branded content with a newly powerful media behemoth.

Here’s the full email sent by Peretti to BuzzFeed staff:

Hello BuzzFeeders,
I wanted to share with you a business decision we have made regarding the Trump for President campaign and why we made it.

In April, the Republican National Committee signed an agreement with BuzzFeed to spend a significant amount on political advertisements slated to run during the Fall election cycle. As you know, we accept advertisements from both republican and democratic candidates and we were pleased to accept this advertising order from the RNC.

Since signing this advertising deal, Donald Trump, as you know, has become the presumptive nominee of his party. The tone and substance of his campaign are unique in the history of modern US politics. Trump advocates banning Muslims from traveling to the United States, he’s threatened to limit the free press, and made offensive statements toward women, immigrants, descendants of immigrants, and foreign nationals.

Earlier today Buzzfeed informed the RNC that we would not accept Trump for President ads and that we would be terminating our agreement with them. The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs.

We don’t need to and do not expect to agree with the positions or values of all our advertisers. And as you know, there is a wall between our business and editorial operations. This decision to cancel this ad buy will have no influence on our continuing coverage of the campaign.

We certainly don’t like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company. However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don’t run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won’t accept Trump ads for the exact same reason.
Thanks,
Jonah

Jordan Sargentjordan@gawker.com@jordansarge
Staff Writer

http://gawker.com/buzzfeed-decides-d...-ca-1780789693

Oh Boo Hoo, who cares? If BuzzFeeders support Islamic Radical Terrorists entering the country unvetted, then they are not the audience to raise votes for Trump. If BuzzFeeders support double-standards for women and men that means no one can say anything negative about a woman while running their mouths and pens incessantly against males they don't agree with, then they are not the audience to raise votes for Trump. If BuzzFeeders support illegal immigration and find political candidates dedicated to ending this travesty for our country by building a wall, deporting illegal aliens and enforcing US immigration law, then they are not only not the audience to raise votes for Trump, they are part of the problem instead of part of the American Movement to take our country back, fix it and make it great again.

Send them a box of bath powder in the pretty box with the powder puff to sooth their insensitivity.

Meanwhile I'm taking a little break to enjoy a hot cup of black coffee with my pack of Winstons.

I am concerned about the splinter third party candidates. In Oregon the GOP governor candidate lost by far less than the votes taken off by splinter groups----and we now have one of the most radical governors in the country, self proclaimed bi-sexual Kate Brown. With the Dems controlling the Legislature they are on a roll to enact every morally bizarre policy and blatant pork barrel public project they can think of. This is what happens when third parties siphon off the votes you need to win.