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Comment by applecore | Hacker News Reader

Here is Michael Wolff's account of what happened at the dinner, whom Ben Smith, BuzzFeed's editor in chief, accompanied as a guest:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/wolff/2014/11/...

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And many others: http://dailycaller.com/2014/11/20/buzzfeeds-ben-smith-plays-...

I'm not refuting any ethical questions that were being thrown around, but I would never trust Buzzfeed to do any honest and serious journalism. These are the same people that created the most annoying clickbait lists, sponsored news and their whole design seems to be centered around getting as many ad impressions as possible. Sensationalizing a story for their own benefits is not beyond them.

Not sure why you are getting down-voted. I agree 100%. If we are going to discuss conflicts of interest, we should start with the fact that BuzzFeed's entire business model centers on getting the most page views in the shortest period of time they possibly can.

Yeah, we should probably collectively start referring to those sites as online tabloids so that people don't confuse them with high quality news organizations.

Does it bother anyone else that 1) he led off the article with praise for Uber 2) he was comfortable going to a dinner (assumingly paid for by Uber) that was off the record, but still with the intent to impress him?

What the hell happened to journalism?

Is it just me, or does Uber's CEO seem incredibly naive to think that any conversation with a journalist would ever be taken as "off the record"?

At one point in the distant past, my email somehow got added to the list of a person who hosted dinner parties in Manhattan which had the explicit purpose of mixing journalists and politicians for evenings of "off-the-record" discussions. A number of names on the list were people you could see on TV news several times a week.

I'd get the invitations and there would be topics and guests, much like the Uber CEO, who would be sort of the center of attention. The emails all stressed the off-the-record nature, the idea was to get everyone able to know each other a little better.

I've got mixed feelings about that. Obviously it could make reporter and reportee a bit too cozy with each other. On the other hand, I can see how remembering conversations over chardonnay and cheese would also make access a lot smoother when needed. And the reporters would know where the people they were reporting on were coming from, which is useful even if they don't print it.

tl;dr- These parties happen all the time and stay off record.

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