Even though BuzzFeed strives to make itself more than just a list and quiz filled website, many of the organizations journalists are finding their posts being deleted for different reasons.
The American news media company describes itself as "the social news and entertainment company" as it "redefines online advertising with its social, content-driven publishing technology." They also believe that,
(Image taken from Huffington Post)
"BuzzFeed provides the most shareable breaking news, original reporting, entertainment, and video across the social web to its global audience of more than 200M."
Ironically enough, their "shareable breaking news" and "original reporting" are argued to be at risk of being deleted at the company's discretion. According to Gawker, BuzzFeed is well known for deleting its writers' posts for reasons of unfunniness, tone, and plagiarism.
An article posted on the website in 2012 regarding a political debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney was deleted two days after it was published. Authors Zeke Miller and McKay Coppins reported their opinions on the debate, stating that they believed Romney was the winner of the debate and that Obama was a "weak leader." Despite the fact that I, and many others, disagree with the journalists opinions, they do have a right to report on the topic and publish an article based on what they saw. BuzzFeed's response to the deleted post was that it was a "technical glitch," whether that be the truth or not.
Another journalism fail on BuzzFeed's part took place when an article on Dove soap was taken down because it criticized the manufacturers latest ad campaign. Huffington Post reports that in 2014, over 4,000 posts were deleted from the BuzzFeed website for "not aging well." When BuzzFeed Life editors Emily Fleischaker and Peggy Wang addressed the Dove incident in an email to staff, they stated:
"When we approach charged topics like body image and feminism, we need to show not tell. (That’s a good rule in general, by the way.) We can and should report on conversations that are happening around something that we have opinions about, but using our own voices (and hence, BuzzFeed’s voice) to advance a personal opinion often isn’t in line with BuzzFeed Life’s tone and editorial mission."
While BuzzFeed's reputation on this topic seems to be poor, Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith admits that the decision to delete over 4,000 stories was not the result of a "really-well-thought-out process." Everyone has different opinions and journalists have every right to speak their mind about issues without the fear of their reporting being removed.