Ben Smith, co-founder of Semafor and former editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, joins Jordan to discuss his new book Traffic: Genius, Rivalry and Delusion In The Billion-Dollar Race To Go Viral. The two discuss how the rivalry between Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s co-founder and CEO, and Nick Denton, founder of Gawker, shaped the digital news landscape, how prominent right-wing figures spun out of the same circles as many other liberal media figures, BuzzFeed’s handling of the Steele dossier and more.
Before Jordan’s interview with Ben, Rob and Jordan recap Ron DeSantis’ disastrous Twitter Spaces campaign launch with Elon Musk. After a series of technical setbacks, DeSantis was finally able to launch his campaign with an hour long conversation about various culture war grievances. It’s certainly his brand as a politician, but will it be an effective primary campaign strategy?
You can pick up a copy of Traffic here:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/traffic-genius-rivalry-and-delusion-in-the-billio…
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