News broke late last week that news outlets/clickbait mills BuzzFeed and HuffPost were laying off a large number of staffers. Being pink slipped is a very unpleasant experience, but journalists at liberal outlets seldom hesitate to try to get others fired (or worse) for politically incorrect transgressions that often turn out to be fake news. Admittedly, it’s tough times generally for digital publishers, with lesser-known online media outlets struggling to generate traffic and revenue as well. Moreover, the highly publicized round of job reductions at the aforementioned two online media companies was preceded by tweaks to censorship-loving Big Tech’s algorithms that undermined the market share of several conservative-leaning websites.
Already Woke, Go Broke
From the New York Post:
“HuffPost’s parent company, Verizon, said it was chopping 7 percent of the personnel in the Media Group, which also includes Yahoo and AOL. The cuts total about 1,000 people.BuzzFeed is smaller, but the cuts of about 250 people, or 15 percent of the work force, were implemented almost as soon as they were announced.”
BuzzFeed is also apparently refusing to honor accrued paid-time-off benefits for departing workers. As the late talk show host Bob Grant often said, liberals are the ultimate hypocrites.
Here is the No Bullsh*t YouTube channel’s Buzzfeed takedown:
The Players’ Tribune, a website that enables pro athletes (or their publicists) to post essays, has also implemented layoffs.
Related story: Covington Catholic Controversy Appears to Be Another Media Hoax
The BuzzFeed/HuffPost layoffs did not escape the notice of U.S. President Donald Trump.
You may recall that approximately a week ago, BuzzFeed published a fake news story about ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen being directed to lie to Congress that even the anti-Trump Special Counsel’s office announced was inaccurate.
BuzzFeed has broken some legitimate stories, such as the sexual harassment scandal in Congress, but Mike Cernovich handed that scoop to the website.
Trump Derangement Publishing
Speaking of Cernovich, in a Periscope broadcast today (see below), the author/filmmaker asserted that those two news outlets were adding no value in a constant stream of Trump-bashing “Orange Man Bad” articles.
He maintained that Trump hate pieces merely reflect the conventional wisdom of blue-check Twitter and fail to offer any kind of unique insight. Cernovich also noted that if anything, there is a shortage of pro-Trump journalists in the media, although he added that “Orange Man Good” articles don’t necessarily add value either. Cernovich insisted that much of the anti-Trump “garbage” could be easily drafted by an intern.
Parenthetically, NewsGuard, a Microsoft partner, considers BuzzFeed and very fake news CNN as among the five “safe” news outlets.
“So, basically, NewsGuard says that left-wing propaganda is okay and anything else is not,” Godfather Politics observed.
Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers
Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson has complied 69 (and counting) media mistakes in the Trump era.
Writes Attkisson:
“We the media have ‘fact-checked’ President Trump like we have fact-checked no other human being on the planet—and he’s certainly given us plenty to write about. That’s probably why it’s so easy to find lists enumerating and examining his mistakes, missteps and ‘lies.’ Our repeat mistakes involve declaring that Trump’s claims are ‘lies’ when they are matters of opinion, or when the truth between conflicting sources is unknowable; taking Trump’s statements and events out of context; reporting secondhand accounts against Trump without attribution as if they’re established fact; relying on untruthful, conflicted sources; and presenting reporter opinions in news stories—without labeling them as opinions.”
In a rare instance of media accountability, the London Telegraph was forced to apologize and pay damages for a fake story about first lady Melania Trump.
“Love him or hate him, Trump’s war with fake news makes the past two years worth it,” FNC’s Greg Gutfeld remarked in his monologue about the Telegraph and biased journalism generally.
