By GottaLaff
This year, due to the dismal economic situation for just about everyone who is not a Bush tax-cut wealthy person and the ever-growing gap between the rich and the rest of us, progressive publications -- including BuzzFlash -- have had some hair-raising financial close calls as bills pile up while people who can afford donations dwindle.Much more here.Through all of this, nearly 10 years, BuzzFlash has never accepted corporate advertising or any advertising at all. [...] The list could go on of how we avoid external influence, but we don't think of ourselves as saints. [...]
Ultimately, we decided to develop the ad piece and how these ads are run for a reason (to soften the toxic or negative image of corporations doing environmental, slave wage, or economic harm -- there are banking ads too), but to give our progressive colleagues their due for how much they sacrifice for a better America. We can assure you that they would all (except the Huffington Post, which is an investment enterprise with the goal of increasing market value) rather not run the deceptive ads, including the Nation. [...]
In the meantime, we were a bit astonished to receive a mass solicitation e-mail on December 16 from Katrina vanden Heuvel (the editorial and marketing genius currently publishing "The Nation") -- whom we deeply admire -- accusing BuzzFlash, among others, of running "Nation" stories "without contributing a penny to support and produce the journalism we invest in."
We don't mind being called out by name by people who have a different opinion, but it's another story when a publication you deeply admire slanders you. The fact is that we post headline links to "The Nation" stories from which they derive more hits because of our size, and they then can charge more money to the likes of Coca Cola and Discover Card for running ads for those corporations. BuzzFlash has never reproduced, copied, nor violated the copyright of any "Nation" article, and many of "The Nation" writers, including Jeremy Scahill whom vanden Heuvel mentions, read BuzzFlash and have been interviewed by BuzzFlash. [...]
BuzzFlash links directly to Nation articles, which drives up their "hits" and page views, which means that they can charge Coca Cola more money to greenwash itself! And BuzzFlash promotes "The Nation" writers and books through interviews. [...]The truth is that all the publications vanden Heuvel cited need more funding. [...] Against the power of television and radio, we collectively need all the financial support that we can get, because unless our megaphone gets louder, we are going to lose our nation to the Teabaggers and Neo-Confederates, backed by the global corporatists and bankers who pull the strings on Capitol Hill.
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