NewsFeed with @BuzzFeedBen

A conversation with Ivan Kolpakov, editor in chief of the Russian news site Meduza, and Inga Springe, a founder of the non-profit investigative journalism site Re:Baltica, about reporting on Russia from just across the border in Latvia, what it's like to live inside Russia's media bubble, and why journalists over there aren't particularly interested in the story of Russia's meddling in the U.S. election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nobody has thought more about the intersection of media, technology, and politics than Zeynep Tufekci. Her new book Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, is about the incredible promise and the real weaknesses of these new social media movements that have been central to the news cycle and the way news is made over the last five to ten years. Although Tufekci dates that back much further. In this interview, recorded live in front of an audience of BuzzFeed...

What a student of executive power and friend of James Comey makes of Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller's investigation, and the first 147 days of Trump's presidency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben interviews New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on stage at the Northside Festival in Brooklyn. They talk about de Blasio's relationship with the press — and its parallels with Donald Trump's approach to dealing with the media — recent subway breakdowns, and his very particular gym routine at the Park Slope YMCA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Margaret Sullivan, the longest-serving of the New York Times public editors, talks about the awkwardness of being the paper's in-house critic, the process of choosing to elevate some criticisms over others, and why — when she was chief editor of The Buffalo News, before taking the job at the Times — she reacted with "horror" when her publisher suggested they hire their own public editor. For tickets and info about the Northside Festival, visit northsidereport2017.eventbrite.com. Learn more...

When Roger Ailes' wife Elizabeth sent a statement on her husband's death to The Drudge Report instead of Fox News it was, according to NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik, "the final act of Roger Ailes' revenge" against the network he created. In an interview for the podcast NewsFeed with @BuzzFeedBen, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith talks with Folkenflik about Ailes' contentious relationship with the Murdochs and the way he wielded — and abused — his power as the head of Fox News....

"I think facts and truth are essential to journalism but you need to reckon with emotion. You have to deal with how people feel, otherwise you miss the story." The new editor-in-chief of the renamed HuffPost says she's positioning the site in the spirit of the best of tabloid journalism. "The great tabloids were always driven by a sense of outrage, you know a sense of righteous indignation...and had this sensibility of, you know, like, there are people out there that are trying to screw...

"Is it strange to be that far inside the head of the President of the United States?" "I try not to think about it." The two New York Times reporters on the Trump beat talk about obsessing over Donald Trump, and about his obsession with them. Plus: their shared roots in New York media, their reporting partnership, and their love (Thrush) and hate (Haberman) relationship with Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I’m afraid, but I’m more curious. What I love about this moment, a few weeks before our first child is born, is wondering how it’s going to change our lives, and not having any idea. I'm wondering how it’s going to change me. How it’s going to change my emotions. The way I view the world. The way I view this administration. The way I view the media. I wonder if there’s any other element of life that’s like this." Ben interviews Brian Stelter: father-to-be, the host of CNN's Reliable...

"You can upvote it all the way into Donald Trump's mouth." Ben talks to BuzzFeed tech reporter Charlie Warzel about how Twitter and Reddit trolling found its way into the White House briefing room. Read more by Charlie Warzel: - Here's How The White House Is Legitimizing The Pro-Trump Media - From Reddit To Trump’s Twitter — In Less Than 24 Hours - The Right Is Building A New Media "Upside Down" To Tell Trump’s Story - “A Honeypot For Assholes”: Inside Twitter’s 10-Year Failure To Stop...

The intersection of politics, tech, and media is where all the action is. Since the 2016 election, politics and the media business have become inseparable. We’ve elected an entertainment figure as President of the United States. The media political conversation is shaped and driven by tech platforms, and Twitter and Facebook have become totally central to politics. For the inaugural episode, Ben visits David Axelrod, formerly Senior Adviser to President Obama, in Chicago to talk about...