Future Tense

Future Tense Newsletter: Why BuzzFeed Published Those Explosive, Unverified Trump Memos

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a news cenference at Trump Tower on Wednesday in New York City.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Greetings, Future Tensers—

Though we’re more than a week into 2017, the 2016 election circus continues to cast a long shadow. This week, Slate’s Will Oremus has been diving into its continuing fallout—particularly for what it can tell us about the future of the media that covered it.

First, Will tackles the question of why BuzzFeed published those explosive, unverified, memos that allege (alongside more salacious things) that President-elect Donald Trump and his advisers secretly colluded with Russian agents. Other news outlets that saw the dossier first had declined to disclose its uncorroborated details. But, Oremus writes, the social news site’s decision followed a tradition of internet platforms that have treated “the notion of media as privileged gatekeeper of information … with disdain.” Instead, it asked readers to make up their own minds about accusations.

Will also covered Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s Senate testimony that Russia used fake news to influence U.S. elections, Facebook’s recent decision to hire Campbell Brown as head of news partnerships (and what it says about the site’s response to the fake news that filled its feeds in 2016), and why Mark Zuckerberg is suddenly acting like a politician.

Speaking of monsters that cast long shadows, our latest installment in our January Futurography on Frankenstein has Katy Waldman chronicling how the Franken- prefix lurched into our lexicons and took on a life of its own. From frankenfoods to Frankenweenie, frankenstorm to frankenberry, it seems we still want Mary Shelley’s 199-year-old creation to help explain our frankenworld.

Events:

  • TOMORROW: Join Federal Trade Commissioner Terrell McSweeny on Thursday, Jan. 12, for the latest installment of our “My Favorite Movie” series. She’ll be hosting a screening of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension at Washington, D.C.’s Landmark E Street Cinema. You can still RSVP here.
  • Will the internet always be American? On Tuesday, Jan. 24, Future Tense will host a live event in Washington, D.C., exploring the internet’s nationality, the extent to which it’s an expression of U.S. culture and values, and whether America’s worldwide (web) dominance may be receding. You can RSVP to attend in person or watch online here.

Saying goodbye to Diamond Joe,
Kirsten Berg
for Future Tense

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University.