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The Origin Story of Digital News

The Brian Lehrer Show | May 2, 2023

Ben Smith, editor in chief of Semafor, former media columnist for The New York Times, and the author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral (Penguin Press, 2023), tells the story of the progressive roots of digital news at companies like HuffPost and Gawker Media (including his own role as the founding editor in chief of Buzzfeed News) and how it went on to become a force in right-wing politics.

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