Episode 470 - The Group Chats That Changed America (w/ Ben Smith)
Bad Faith
Bad Faith
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Semifor editor-in-chief and former EIC of Buzzfeed News Ben Smith joins Bad Faith to discuss his recent exposé on the private group chats in which tech billionaires like Marc Andreessen & Mark Cuban build consensus and debate ideas with handpicked "smart" men who are ideologically right-of-center -- all hidden from public eyes and public pushback. In theory, these chats were designed to be 'safe spaces' in which the Richard Hananias, Christopher Rufos, and even Thomas Chatterton Williamses could discuss ideas without censorship on liberal-leaning social media apps. But what purpose do they serve once Williams is booted for ideological consistency on free speech issues and even Hanania is outed for his willingness to question Trump denialism? The conversation broadens to a critique of mainstream media's handling of left politics, and Smith's editorial role as the head of several major media outlets.
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Produced by Armand Aviram.
Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).
Transcript
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| 0:22.6 | I'm It is my enormous pleasure to be joined for the first time on Bad Faith podcast by Ben Smith. |
| 0:49.0 | You know him as the founder and editor-in-chief of Symiphor and also as the EIC of BuzzFeed during what I like to |
| 0:56.1 | refer to as its Halcyon Days. Welcome to Bad Faith. Thank you so much for having me on. |
| 1:01.7 | It's my pleasure for two reasons. One, as we were just sort of reminiscing about, we connected first |
| 1:07.2 | years ago when I was considering leaving the law. |
| 1:16.1 | And you reached out to me about potentially doing a podcast over at BuzzFeed. At BuzzFeed, right. |
| 1:17.8 | Was like the pinnacle of my imagination for how I could enter the sort of media space |
| 1:24.7 | and offer up opinions, which were leftist in nature and which I felt |
| 1:28.4 | like didn't really have much of a place to land in the media sphere. And certainly now that maybe |
| 1:34.5 | media sphere has changed a great deal. I have connected to and been made more aware of the broad |
| 1:40.7 | red tube media space. And also, the entire world is sort of logged off of the TV and logged |
| 1:46.7 | onto YouTube and alternative media is where things are happening. And I'm curious what you make of |
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