BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith does not regret publishing an unverified document on President-elect Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
Appearing on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” Smith clashed with host Brian Stelter over his news organization’s decision to publish the explosive allegations, despite knowing some of the claims were untrue.
“If you want your audience to trust you, our job is not to be gatekeepers to decide what to suppress and keep from the audience,” Smith said Sunday.
“You say suppress,” Stelter responded. “Journalists every day make editing decisions. This was an editing choice about not putting incompletely verified rumors on the Internet.”
Stelter then questioned the journalistic ethics behind the decision.
“I’m trying to figure out if you all are Washington Post or WikiLeaks,” he said. “Seems to me you’re trying to be both. … You all aspire to be one of the world’s great news divisions. But aren’t you trying to be more like WikiLeaks in this case?”
Smith said if you’re reporting on a document, “the presumption is you share the document.”
When Smith said BuzzFeed “reported” the story, Stelter pushed back, saying there’s “a difference between publishing and reporting.”
Smith sent an email to BuzzFeed staff on Tuesday explaining the outlet’s decision to publish to the unverified allegations.
“We published the dossier … so that, as we wrote, ‘Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of the U.S. government,'” he said.
“Publishing this dossier reflects how we see the job of reporters in 2017,” Smith continued.
BuzzFeed noted when posting the full document that the allegations were unverified and some were untrue.
