Buzzfeed accused of thinking it’s ‘above the facts’ as outrage grows over website’s decision to publish unverified Donald Trump report
BUZZFEED has been accused of thinking it's "above the facts" as outrage grows after its decision to publish an unverified report alleging Donald Trump took part in a sordid sex act with prostitutes.
The site sparked a media storm after it broke the story earlier this week detailing contents of the unverified dossier authored by MI6 Brit spy Christopher Steele.
It claims Trump watched prostitutes engage in degrading sex in a Moscow hotel room and that Russia could use this information to blackmail the President-elect.
Furious Trump called BuzzFeed a “disgrace” and “a failing pile of garbage”, when he appeared for a pre-arranged press conference a day after the site published the allegations.
During the fiery press conference, the President-elect also let rip on CNN, which later reported on the dossier, labelling them "fake news".
His adviser Anthony Scaramucci told yesterday that Trump will continue to call out “falsehoods” in the news and “will go directly to the American people, right over the top of the mainstream media.”
Speaking about Buzzfeed, Scaramucci accused the news organisation of saying "nonsense to get some attention”.
He added: “There’s a level of dishonesty about the BuzzFeed process. They seem to think they’re more important than the facts and the objective standards of journalism.”
The publication sparked widespread condemnation from many media outlets including the Guardian, one of at least seven other news outlets who turned down the dossier after being unable to verify its claims.
Jane Martinson, writing in the Guardian, said the decision to publish .
She added: "It is wrong for any respected news organisation to publish information it knows may not be true."
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Radio host Jon Gaunt joined in denouncing Buzzfeed's Russian dossier story, calling it "scumbag journalism" and "similar to gossip".
He told presenters at : "You can’t possibly put this out as news. They haven’t verified it; they haven’t backed it up. It is scurrilous it is scumbag journalism."
Left-wing site called Buzzfeed the epitome of “fake news" after publishing the unsubstantiated allegations which it says "amounts to a serious violation of journalistic ethics".
Poynter's Kelly McBride, writing in , said: "The most damaging result of BuzzFeed’s unfortunate decision is Trump’s newfound weapon to dismiss all journalists who criticize him as unfair and unethical."
Poynter made headlines recently after it emerged Facebook had asked it to stamp down on fake news following the scandal during the US presidential election.
But in an article on the titled “BuzzFeed was right to publish the Trump blackmail dossier, and the world is a better place for it”, it stated: “Video or no video, true or false — it’s better for everyone if the material is aired immediately”.
So far The Guardian, the BBC, The Spectator, The New York Times, NBC and Associated Press have all said they were aware of the allegations but did not publish because they could not verify the allegations.
Since its publication, Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith released a statement insisting that the site published the material so "Americans could make up their own minds about the allegations".
He defended the site’s decision stating that "publishing this dossier reflects how we see the job of reporters in 2017’ and added that he not only had “serious reason to doubt the allegations", but that Buzzfeed made this clear when they published.
He later told MSNBC the current media environment meant news organisations "have to engage in false statements", adding "sunlight is a disinfectant" to such rumours.
It has also been claimed Buzzfeed could face legal action.
Jane Kirtley, a media law expert at the University of Minnesota, told it was "conceivable" Trump could have a defamation case given so many other organisations declined to report on it.
She added: "This could lead to an argument that BuzzFeed acted ‘recklessly’ and made editorial decisions that were contrary to standard journalistic verification practices."
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