Conservative radio host and widely-read author Hugh Hewitt ended 2014 with a bang. BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith finished it with a whimper, thanks to Hewitt. When the two spoke yesterday, it brightened New Year's Eve for many a listener.
Smith appeared on Hewitt's program to discuss BuzzFeed's coverage and what to expect in the coming year when the subject of anti-police protests arose (audio) --
HEWITT: The lead story at BuzzFeed on the last day of the year -- "Dead Cops Chant a Myth." That's the headline. When you click on that, in fact, the headline is misleading because your reporter says it's not a myth, it's just overstated. What they've latched onto in Tasneem Nashrulla's piece is, (quoting from the story), "What they've latched onto is one viral video and a few small online anarchist groups." And then as you read later, that's the subhead, I don't know if she wrote that either, when you read later she actually comes up with a half dozen instances of occasions where people have called for violence against police. So what do you call that, that escalator of attention grabbers?
SMITH: No, wait, wait, wait a second. The, uhm (pause), the (pauses again), the specific ...
HEWITT: (tossing Smith a lifeline): The headline is, "Dead Cops Chant a Myth."
SMITH: OK, so I haven't read the story, so I don't want to debate it with you ... (his words drowned out over Hewitt's laughter).
HEWITT: So I'm ahead of the editor?! (Smith chuckles). That's OK. No, look, here's the deal -- the story's a good story, it makes a key point which is the amplification of trolls is a problem in the news business, right? That's what happens is, the lowest common denominator of any story gets the most attention. Happens on the immigration story, happens on the cop killer chant story. Nevertheless, the headline ...
SMITH: But wait, you said this story, this story is protesters advocating for dead cops, it seems like a pretty, pretty straightforward ...
HEWITT: Look at "Dead Cops Chant a Myth," Ben. It's not a myth -- she confirms it in the first graph! It happened.
SMITH (another pause): Oh I see, you're talking about the splash headline here.
HEWITT: Yeah! (laughs). What people click on! So, is that tabloid? Are you guys borrowing?
SMITH: I think "myth" is, I think "myth" is a little strong but (yet another pause) I'm also not sure what you're asking.
HEWITT: What I'm saying is, do you feel regret that they used that, or is that just fair game, tabloid journalism comes to the Internet? You're just trying to get people to click on that to read it.
SMITH: I'm happy to take a look at the story that you just, that you're reading aloud to me at the moment. I mean, I think that obviously reporting should be accurate, headlines should be accurate. I mean, so, yeah, but I think that's a fairly obvious point that we both agree on.
I'll stick my neck way out and predict that Smith takes the time to read his site before appearing again on Hewitt's show, assuming he ever does.
How about that, the headline for the BuzzFeed story was changed after he spoke with Hewitt -- to one equally bad if not worse -- "The Origins Of The Alleged 'Dead Cops' Chant" -- with the story providing a narrative of how the meme gained traction and several examples of protesters demanding violence against police, loud and vocally in public or for all the world to see on social media. In other words, BuzzFeed merely substituted "alleged" for "myth" while at the same time demonstrating why neither is accurate.
At the end of the story appears a correction, or what passes for one -- "A headline on the front page of BuzzFeed described the chant of "dead cops" as a "myth." In fact, marchers appearing to chant those words appear on a YouTube video embedded in this post."
Note the curious absence of "alleged" in the correction, though "appearing to chant" is a nice touch. Hey, who you gonna believe, BuzzFeed or your lying ears? The correction also falsely implies that the dead cops chant heard on the video is the only example in the BuzzFeed story of protesters calling for a war on cops, which it clearly isn't.
"BuzzedFeed" would be a more accurate name for the site.
