More than half of the Tea Party News Network’s authors resigned Thursday afternoon after the Daily Beast published an unflattering profile detailing the group’s “clickbait” content and questionable business practices.
In an article titled “The Tea Party’s Own World Star Hip-Hop,” the Daily Beast’s David Freedlander reported the conservative group’s Facebook page regularly curates content from separate “viral” websites, including Fights.buzz and Viral.buzz, which are owned by Tea Party News Network owner and editor Todd Cefaratti.
Cefaratti is also the founder of the nonprofit TeaParty.net, which took in approximately $6 million in donations during the 2014 election cycle.
Cefaratti’s other viral media ventures are for-profit.
Hours after the Daily Beast published its exposé, five of TPNN’s authors tendered their resignations in a written note to Cefaratti.
“It is both an honor and a privilege to represent the grassroots activists that make up the audience of your organizations,” the letter read. “Unfortunately the ‘coalition’ of companies and groups you collectively run has not been operating with the honor that people should be able to expect.”
“TheTeaParty.net Facebook page was built using non-profit dollars and resources and yet the hundreds of thousands of dollars a month being generated from traffic deriving from the non-profit Facebook page are being funneled to a for profit company with no transparency,” the note continued. “Even if you could find a way to make that legal, it’s immoral and unethical.”
The letter’s signatories, Dustin Stockton, Kriss hall, Matthew Burke, Jennifer Burke and Greg Campbell, emphasized their unease with the often violent content hosted on the TheTeaParty.net Facebook page, including posts titled “VIDEO: Cowardly Sucker Punch Kills Autistic Man” and “VIDEO: Big Guy Punches Girl Through Window!!!”
“We represent ourselves as ‘The Tea Party’ on Facebook and take no actions to hold ourselves to the higher standards of that designation. Posts by fights.buzz and viral.buzz have become increasingly vile and unacceptable. The Tea Party is not TMZ and TPNN is not WorldStar,” the letter read.
The Daily Beast profile also reported that TPNN, which was launched in 2011 with the promise of becoming the “only trusted news source and the antidote to mainstream media bias,” relies heavily on clickbait stories for its very strong web traffic — the group boasts of nearly 12 million unique visitors per month — much to the chagrin of its more dedicated Tea Party readership.
Articles currently available on the News Network’s web page include:
“OMG! Obama: Islamists Have ‘Legitimate Grievances.’”
“University Tells Its Authors Not to Write About Bacon; Wait Until You See Why.”
“Hurry Up And Watch This Mockery of Obama’s Internet Takeover; It May Soon Be Squelched by Big Brother.”
“Muslims Insist Family Dig Up their Dead Grandpa; You Won’t Believe Why.”
“RAW VIDEO: Routine Stop Goes South Quickly, Suspect Shoots at Cop and Then This Happens.”
“You’re Not Going to Believe the Pathetic Excuse Kanye West Gave for his Out of Control Rant at the Grammys.”
“Guess Who Bruce Jenner is Now Blaming for his Fatal Accident; You Won’t Believe It.”
“What in the World was CNN Thinking with this Insulting and Insensitive Tweet?”
“He Just Came Completely Out of the Closet, But Will This Megastar Now Be Blacklisted by the Intolerant Haters in Hollywood?”
The resigning staffers also took a shot at Cefaratti and management, writing: “You regularly show contempt for the people who make all your financial success possible. The staff who work around the clock to produce timely and breaking content is regularly reminded that ‘writers are cheap.’ The audience is regarded as unsophisticated simpletons. The activism that built all the infrastructure is considered a ‘pain in the ass’ not as an opportunity to save the country.”
“As a group we can no longer tolerate being associated with these despicable practices,” the letter concluded.
Of the seven authors currently listed on the network’s “authors page,” only Cefaratti, news director Scottie Hughes and guest contributor Alan Caruba remain.
Joel Frewa left the group in 2014, according to his LinkedIn account.
A spokesperson for Tea Party News Network did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s multiple requests for comment.
