BuzzFeed to RNC: We don’t want your money, because of Trump

BuzzFeed feels so strongly about Donald Trump's outrages that it doesn't want money from the Republican National Committee (RNC).

In a memo to colleagues, BuzzFeed founder and chief executive Jonah Peretti indicated that BuzzFeed had "terminated" a deal concluded in April under which the RNC would "spend a significant amount on political advertisements slated to run during the Fall election cycle." The reason for the cancellation is Trump, according to Peretti:

Since signing this advertising deal, Donald Trump, as you know, has become the presumptive nominee of his party. The tone and substance of his campaign are unique in the history of modern US politics. Trump advocates banning Muslims from traveling to the United States, he's threatened to limit the free press, and made offensive statements toward women, immigrants, descendants of immigrants, and foreign nationals….The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs.

BuzzFeed, noted Peretti, takes advertising from both Republican and Democratic candidates and was "pleased" to secure the advertising from the Republican National Committee. Yet that was before Trump, in early May, became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. "We certainly don't like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company," noted Peretti in the memo, which was first reported by Politico's Hadas Gold and Alex Spence. "However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: 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."

That's an acute burn.

[VIDEO: Trump calls for 'total and complete' shutdown of Muslims entering U.S.]

Note how these things work: Peretti is speaking as BuzzFeed's chief executive, not as its editor. The latter role falls to Ben Smith, who told the Erik Wemple Blog via email: "As he wrote, it wasn't an editorial call, and it doesn't reflect or change the tough, fair coverage we've been giving to this presidential campaign, coverage we are proud of. This was Jonah's call, and the prerogative of a publisher."

The Erik Wemple Blog is awaiting comments from the Trump campaign and the RNC.

BuzzFeed's business decision will make plenty of headlines, as did the moves of another digital media outlet — the Huffington Post, which last summer decided to place Trump coverage in its entertainment section. It later returned the stories to its politics vertical and added a footer to Trump stories nutshelling his record:

Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

Those decisions by the Huffington Post, however, were exclusively editorial ones, not business-side ones, as in the BuzzFeed case.

Such matters of editorial jurisdiction are very important to media bloggers like yours truly. Whether they matter a lick to Trump is another matter altogether. Don't be surprised to see tweets from BuzzFeed reporters in the near future complaining of roadblocks in their coverage of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

UPDATE 12:15 p.m.: The RNC responds. "Space was reserved on many platforms, but we never intended to use Buzzfeed. Although it is ironic that they have not ruled out taking money from a candidate currently under investigation by the FBI," notes RNC chief strategist and communications director Sean Spicer. No money has changed hands, according to an RNC source, noting that the "reservation" with BuzzFeed represented less than one percent of total reservations.

Source: BuzzFeed to RNC: We don't want your money, because of Trump