Buzzfeed Founder Compares Trump to Cigarettes, Refuses Trump for President Ads

One of the Web’s Top Sites Breaks Contract

Buzzfeed has just backed out of a $1.3 million advertising contract with the Republican National Committee citing Donald Trump. The popular news and entertainment website, ranked among the top 150 in the U.S., compared Trump to cigarettes.

“Earlier today, BuzzFeed informed the RNC that we would not accept Trump for President ads and that we would be terminating our agreement with them,” Buzzfeed CEO and founder Jonah Peretti said in an email to employees that was later posted to the company’s website as a news story. “The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs.”

“We certainly don’t like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company. However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don’t run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won’t accept Trump ads for the exact same reason,” Peretti added.

The company is privately owned and had revenue in 2015 of $167 million.

“BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith reiterated that the decision was not an editorial call and that coverage of the Trump campaign by BuzzFeed News journalists would go unchanged. ‘This was Jonah’s call, and the prerogative of a publisher,’ Smith wrote.”

Indeed, as of this writing, this is the front page of Buzzfeed:

 

 

Image by IAB UK via Flickr and a CC license
Hat tip: Talking Points Memo