In case you aren’t familiar with the business practices of Buzzfeed, they sometimes feature sponsored content where someone pays Buzzfeed money to post something for them and disguise it as a genuine article.
Whether you agree with that practice or not, there is an inherent danger that this content will be misrepresented, and some may say that’s the primary appeal of it.
During a Q&A session at a RedState convention on Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, explained that more and more Americans were understanding that Obamacare was bad for America.
“Buzzfeed — the leftwing site — y’all know Buzzfeed?” he asked. “Yesterday they did a whole series of graphic pictures basically showing that I was promised one thing on Obamacare and here is what I’m left with.” [...]
“Look, when Buzzfeed is turning on him, this thing isn’t working,” Cruz declared.
That whole series of newfangled graphic picture things (gifs) hosted by Buzzfeed was sponsored by the Heritage Foundation.
The Heritage Foundation paid Buzzfeed to host their content and Senator Ted Cruz cited that sponsored content as an example of the Left abandoning Obamacare.
Obviously Ted Cruz is an idiot who knows not what he says or does, but his takeaway from reading the sponsored content on Buzzfeed is probably more representative of the average person’s takeaway than we would like.
I understand this practice is lucrative for Buzzfeed, but it’s very irresponsible and it places a handicap on the notion of taking Buzzfeed seriously as a journalistic institution. And being taken seriously may not be their aim, but I’m sure some of those who write for Buzzfeed would like to think it is.
As someone who is currently jobless, I understand the need to get paid as much as anyone, but there must be another way that doesn’t involve this sort of collateral damage. We can’t all expect to be bought out by Jeff Bezos, unfortunately.
I wish I had the answer because we’re drowning.
Update... according to Andrew Kaczynski, no money changed hands in the case of Heritage's Obamacare gifs