Janine Gibson, a former editor at the Guardian who left last month after she was passed over for the position of editor-in-chief, has landed at BuzzFeed.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday morning that Gibson would be heading up the site’s UK operation, looking to hire more staff and concentrate on breaking news.
Gibson left the Guardian last month after 17 years once she was reportedly overlooked to become editor-in-chief. She distinguished herself at the paper by supervising the Pulitzer-winning coverage of the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013.
BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith tweeted an internal email about the hire on Tuesday morning:
So thrilled @janinegibson is joining us. Here’s @lukelewis‘s email to the staff of @BuzzFeedUK pic.twitter.com/60IZUQp8c9
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) June 16, 2015
The New York Times reported that Gibson did not leave the Guardian with a secure job in place:
She did not have a plan, she said, but met with BuzzFeed’s editor in chief, Ben Smith, shortly afterward. He outlined the site’s ambitions for Britain, which, she said, seemed “like the vital combination of possible and exciting.”
BuzzFeed, which attracted nearly 13 million unique visitors from Britain in March, according to its own most recent figures, started a British operation in 2012, Mr. Smith said. As of now, Ms. Gibson said, “it is top second tier” and has room to grow.
She said she would focus on “serious news, quite a lot of innovation,” while retaining the site’s “sense of humor and liveliness.”
Well, that’s quite a step down. Going from what was once one of the most respected media outlets to a cesspool like Buzzfeed. But, in the last couple years, The Guardian has turned into nothing more than American bashing tabloid. And, yep, it all started with the onslaught of the Snowden stories and Greenwald’s completely biased “reporting”, so maybe Buzzfeed is a good fit for her.
The Manchester Guardian has moved radically right wing and now supports Amerikan fascism, within the past year, if you read them everyday and understand their support of the 1% and Amerikan propaganda. The Guardian has collapsed as far as I am concerned and no longer honest.
And this is important? Why? And why is it more important than, say, the fact that the Pittsburgh Pirates and first-rounder Ke’Bryan Hayes have come to agree to terms? Or the fact that Greek President Tsipras has just made a speech in which he refers to the IMP as “criminals”; Grexit is a real possibility.
People who write about or manipulate the news are not the news.
Would this be the Guardian that won the Pulitzer for 2014 for public service? The Guardian offers a serious, global, and relatively reliable corrective to the cowed and reflexively rightwing or establishmentarian US media that provide 90% of US political and global coverage to the US.
I have the Guardian U.S. edition bookmarked and check it every day. It’s reliable, reputable, and offers comprehensive news from almost everywhere so you’re reading something very different than what I am.