Last week, BuzzFeed, an internet media outlet, announced that they have broken their $1.3 million business agreement with the Republican National Convention (RNC), and will not be covering the RNC because they do not support Donald Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee since Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropped out. In an e-mail to BuzzFeed employees, CEO Jonah Peretti cited that they would not be covering the event due to the substance of Trump's stance on social issues, such as Muslim immigration and the limitation of the free press.
From a business standpoint, the CEO of Buzzfeed has the power to literally do whatever he wants in regard to his company. He sees a man who supports ideals that will effect his employees, if Trump were to become president, and chooses not to support that in any shape or form. BuzzFeed obviously has employees of Muslim descent who, if Trump were elected, might never be able to travel freely again. Trump has also spoken of limiting the free press in certain ways. BuzzFeed is a member of the free press and would be included in these limitations that Trump says he wants to put forth. If he truly believes this is the right thing to do, then kudos to him for making such a decision, even if it does cost his company $1.3 million.
Personally, I don't think it's quite "fair" for BuzzFeed to cancel their coverage of the RNC. I understand that everyone has their opinions of political candidates and sometimes political candidates can say very outrageous things to draw attention, but I do not believe it is fair to the political process to only cover one convention. Now some might say that politicians don't need the media to run a campaign, but frankly, they do. Television and visually-based media have been a deciding factor ever since the election campaign of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, where the presidential debate was publicized. Kennedy was the more favorable one, and his young and charming good looks were cited for it, in comparison to the older features of Richard Nixon.
From the outside looking in, especially by someone who (hypothetically) isn't very involved in politics, it could be perceived that BuzzFeed only supports the Democratic agenda and is choosing to not cover the RNC because of their personal opinions. In the same e-mail Peretti sent to his employees, he mentioned that "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." I'm sorry, but this was a tad bit tacky. Donald Trump is just a man, a person made of flesh and blood like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. He is not a carcinogen that will kill you with years of ingestion, he just has ideas that are more radical and "old-fashioned" than what we see today from the many progressives and liberals of the age. He's just as outspoken. He's just not what everyone wants to hear. This doesn't mean that BuzzFeed still shouldn't cover him and the Republican National Convention.
My momma always told me that sometimes the first and outward opinion of others is the only one that prevails, and I sure wouldn't want the merit of Mr. Peretti judged in such a way. Media outlets are supposed to be fair sources of news and information, although most are biased. I still believe in the idea of unbiased news.
As I stated previously, in the campaign of Kennedy vs. Nixon, Kennedy was more favored, partially because he was better looking. The digital media industry has a big impact on the decision of the campaign. Honestly and unfortunately, most people don't take the time to research presidential candidates as much as they should and so they rely on the coverage each candidate gets on their media outlets. This could sway some people to vote for the Democratic nominee without ever hearing about the Republican choice. I hope that this was not the CEO of BuzzFeed's intentions when making his decision.
I believe that with all matters such as these, political coverage should remain balanced, no matter what each candidate believes. Media outlets owe it to the people to be as unbiased and balanced as possible. Just because one covers a piece of news does not mean that they believe it or support it.
