In a twist on the standard Remnant formula that nobody asked for, Jonah is joined by noted chicken wing connoisseur Steve Hayes to co-host today’s episode. Their guest is Ben Smith, founder of Semafor, former editor in chief of BuzzFeed News, and author of the new book, Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral. The book takes us back to the early days of the internet to explore how the rivalry between Jonah Peretti of BuzzFeed and Nick Denton of Gawker paved the way for today's climate of disinformation, and naturally, it raises a number of questions. How has journalism changed since the dawn of the internet? Why does the young right tend to confuse social media with real life? What can we do to fix the media landscape? And will Jonah ever get over the golden age of blogging?
Show Notes:
- Ben’s new book, Traffic
- Ben: “Confessions of a Media Chronicler”
- Semafor
- The Great Moon Hoax
- Benjy Sarlin: “Take Donald Trump seriously, not literally, on ‘fake news’”
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