Over the past couple of months, at least two posts were mysteriously deleted from BuzzFeed shortly after they went up on the site, with no explanation. One was about how Monopoly is “the worst game in the world,” and the other called Dove’s latest ad campaign “condescending” to women. Now, after Gawker’s J.K. Trotter accused the site of spiking stories that criticized its advertisers, such as Dove parent company Unilever, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith has issued an explanation and reinstated the stories in question.
Smith tweeted this message Friday afternoon, which included an email he sent to his staff:
Appreciate the criticism. We just reinstated two posts and I sent this note to staffers. pic.twitter.com/YodxHiQmt2
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) April 10, 2015
In his memo, Smith admitted that he should not have deleted the posts, but said the decision concerned “the place of personal opinion pieces” on BuzzFeed and denied that there was any “advertiser pressure” involved.
He also pointed out that the following editorial update had been added to both posts:
This post was inappropriately deleted amid an ongoing conversation about how and when to publish personal opinion pieces on BuzzFeed. The deletion was in violation of our editorial standards and the post has been reinstated.
On Thursday, Smith tweeted out this note from two of his editors, summing up the site’s policy on “hot takes”:
.@iam486 & @emofly sent this to staff earlier today about why we changed a post: We are trying not to do hot takes pic.twitter.com/bgVdxOR3Uh
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) April 10, 2015
But as some readers have been noting on Twitter, the alleged no opinion policy is hardly in evidence across much of BuzzFeed’s content:
buzzfeed is worried about the place of 'personal opinion' on the site
wtf does that even mean
— Alex (@alex) April 10, 2015
BuzzFeed exists because editors make lists of the best/worst/greatest/saddest things in the world/things you need to try. WTF.
— Matt Brian (@m4tt) April 10, 2015
Here's a @buzzfeed post that just praises a Lane Bryant ad campaign. Doesn't bald praise count as opinion?http://t.co/ZZGe6zWtPk
— Taylor J. Wofford (@taylorjwofford) April 10, 2015
1,022,039 BuzzFeed Articles That Tell Its Audience How to Think and Feel
— Adrienne LaFrance (@AdrienneLaF) April 10, 2015
A bit confused, because the personal voices are one reason I read BuzzFeed https://t.co/qE12Ielo8h
— Josh Constine (@JoshConstine) April 10, 2015
This deserves a big ole “LOL" sticker, no? (re: @jktrotter’s http://t.co/OU5u4ldm0A) pic.twitter.com/7KePRKFdm4
— Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) April 10, 2015
[Photo via YouTube]
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