Joe Veix posted his listicle “The 10 DUMBEST BuzzFeed Lists You’re EMBARRASSED To Say You CLICKED” Tuesday, and the site took it down quickly, he says. BuzzFeed readers can create their own articles on the site after registering.
In an exchange on Twitter, BuzzFeed Community Editor Cates Holderness told Veix the piece was “mean-spirited.”
@joeveix There’s a difference between satire and being mean-spirited.
— Cates Holderness (@catesish) July 9, 2013
“We are totally game to make fun of ourselves as long as it’s all in good fun,” BuzzFeed spokesperson Ashley McCollum tells Poynter via email. “This time, it wasn’t so we decided to remove the post.”
- Part of Veix’s list
Veix, who has written for The Awl, McSweeney’s and The New Yorker, tells Poynter via email that this post was his first BuzzFeed contribution.
In a blog post about his article coming down, Veix notes that an article by BuzzFeed staffer Benny Johnson that tells the story of Egypt’s tumultuous last couple of years via animated GIFs from the movie “Jurassic Park” is still available. Slate’s L.V. Anderson wrote that Johnson’s piece “confirms the suspicion of many non-Americans that we in the U.S. do not take their lives and circumstances seriously.”
By contrast, this BuzzFeed list about the recent Egyptian turmoil, compiled by community member the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., is very informative.
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