BOSTON — This month’s BuzzFeed Inc. controversy proves once again that journalism can be its own worst enemy.
A report by the NewYork-based news outlet drew an unprecedented rebuke by Special Counsel Robert Mueller who is leading the investigation into Russia’s influence on the 2016 presidential election. Chronic criers of so-called “fake news” could never have found a better ally.
BuzzFeed, which launched in 2006, established a news division in 2011. The company’s BuzzFeed News was officially formed in 2016 to differentiate the company’s reporting division from its entertainment group. But did it do so effectively? Unfortunately, the quality of BuzzFeed’s news reports— including the early 2017 discredited release of the Steele dossier—suggests no.
The result is an untenable dynamic because BuzzFeed’s dubious reporting is undermining more credible reports and enabling unscrupulous officials to call into question the status of all news media. That’s a dangerous situation in a democracy that depends on a dependable and robust press to ask the tough questions and counterbalance abuse of power. Without credible reporters, the balance tips and corruption gets a free pass. Thomas Jefferson said it best: “An informed citizenry is the bulwark of a democracy.”
DELL AND A SANITIZED WEB
The stakes are higher now than ever. Yet, one wouldn’t know that based on the reaction of the nation’s journalism schools and journalism organizations where indifference is the default mode.
In April, this piece recounted the details of a flagrant case of corporate censorship in Austin, Texas. In mid-2015, an Austin Business Journal manager said that while I was on vacation, Dell Technologies Inc. threatened the ABJ’s parent company, North Carolina-based American City Business Journals, over its coverage. ACBJ execs buckled under the pressure. Tweets were deleted, a story disappeared, media credentials were denied by Dell. The reporter who at the direction of editors broke several stories about the company was suddenly given an unscheduled performance review stating that his job was in jeopardy despite and unblemished career and the lack of a single human resources issue during 10 years with the company.
Dell Technologies, in collusion with a national media company, successfully targeted a reporter who knew Dell well and had written hundreds of articles about it. (More than 700 stories listed under this reporter’s byline referenced Dell). Dell public relations people routinely made it clear they didn’t appreciate enterprise stories. Yet the ACBJ awarded the reporter its highest honor in 2012 citing his close coverage of Dell.
ACBJ President and CEO Whit Shaw later told Talking Biz News the reporter’s dismissal was “a personnel issue” and declined to provide an explanation for the missing Dell story. The company also tried to cover its tracks by tying the reporter’s separation payout to a non-disclosure agreement — which the reporter rejected on principle.
SIGNIFICANCE OF CENSORSHIP
Censorship at the ACBJ has national implications.
American City Business Journals operates dozens of publications nationally including 43 business journals with 3.6 million readers. The company is also affiliated with prestigious magazines such as The New Yorker through a mutual parent company, New York-based Advance Publications Inc.
In late 2015, Whit Shaw said in this video the relationship ACBJ has with Advance and sister companies such a Condé Nast Inc. and the Discovery Channel makes the ACBJ part of a “global media powerhouse.”
But there’s more.
National Public Radio cites ACBJ reports on its news programs and the unsuspecting public justifiably believes it’s receiving fully reported, objective coverage, not company-approved, sanitized news.
Also, Advance Publications is a major supporter of one of the nation’s premiere journalism programs at Syracuse University. Should a university journalism program associate with a company that undermines truthful reporting?
It’s worth noting that Whit Shaw stepped into his position when his father, former Wall Street Journal reporter Ray Shaw, died from a wasp sting in 2009. In the 2015 video, Whit Shaw quoted his father about the ACBJ’s loyalty to its employees. The comment drips with irony when considering how the ACBJ bowed to Dell’s strong-arm tactics and flagrant censorship.
“Years ago when my dad said the most important asset in ACBJ arrives every morning on the elevator and takes the elevator down at night,” Shaw said. “That truly is, that individual truly is the most important asset.”