Fake News Media
Revolt at BuzzFeed: Employees Demand Company Pay Laid Off Staff

The leftwing press has had a rough couple of weeks.
Both BuzzFeed and Huffpost were forced into layoffs, apparently realizing that the market for fake news is not what it once was. The entire media had a fit when a white teenager smirked at an aggressive Native man who approached him at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., only to be schooled by the real, independent press on what actually happened. BuffFeed force-fed the American public a nonsense story about President Donald J. Trump asking Michael Cohen to lie to the Senate, only to have that story debunked by corrupt-cop-in-chief Robert Mueller.
Monday, BuzzFeed is back in the news, again for bad reasons:
Trending: Ex-Soviet Leader Gorbachev: US Capitol Riot “Planned in Advance, And It Is Clear by Whom”
“Current and laid off employees are upset with the company’s paid time off (PTO) policy. Apparently those who are being laid off won’t be able to cash in their banked PTO,” Townhall reported. “More than 400 employees signed a petition demanding BuzzFeed pay out the PTO employees accrued.”
The noted leftist news org appears to be acting a bit… greedy. You know? The same thing they and their compatriots accuse capitalists of on a regular basis? It turns out, the staff members at BuzzFeed, even the socialists among them, are a bit miffed at the idea of working for free.
The petition reads:
To Jonah Peretti, Lenke Taylor, and Ben Smith:
We are the BuzzFeed News Staff Council, a group of employees appointed to open up the lines of communication between News employees and company management. We have urgent concerns about the sweeping layoffs hitting the whole company?—?not just News. This letter is cosigned by current and laid-off staffers from across BuzzFeed who strongly share this concern.
Every aspect of the way that these layoffs have been handled so far?—?from communication to execution to aftermath?—?has been deeply upsetting and disturbing, and it will take a long time to repair the damage that has been done to our trust in this company. But there’s one thing you can do right now to help the employees who are losing their jobs.
BuzzFeed is refusing to pay out earned, accrued, and vested paid time off for almost all US employees who have been laid off. They will only pay out PTO to employees in California, where the law requires it. We understand that in other states where BuzzFeed employees have been laid off, state law does not require you to do so. But employers absolutely can pay out PTO?—?and often do. It is a choice, and for a company that has always prided itself on treating its employees well, we unequivocally believe it is the only justifiable choice.
This is paid time that employees accrued by choosing not to take vacation days, and instead do their work at BuzzFeed. Many of the employees who have been laid off had the most difficult jobs in terms of scheduling?—?such as the breaking and curation teams on BuzzFeed News who regularly worked weekends and holidays, or managers who weren’t able to use vacation time because they were expected to be available to their teams. They saved up those days (or weeks) because they were so dedicated to their work, and, in some cases, felt actively discouraged from taking time off. They have as much of a right to those days as anyone else.
For many people, paying out PTO will be the difference between whether or not bills and student loans will be paid on time and how their families are supported. It is unconscionable that BuzzFeed could justify doing so for some employees and not others in order to serve the company’s bottom line.
We, the undersigned, stand together in demanding that BuzzFeed pay out earned PTO to all laid-off employees, regardless of the state they live in, to eliminate this disparity. It is the only just way to proceed?—?especially as this round of layoffs has been so damaging to your workforce as a whole?—?to pay your employees for the time they earned while working so hard to make BuzzFeed a successful company.
Signed,
The BuzzFeed News Staff Council, alongside current and laid-off BuzzFeed employees:
The management does not appear to care about the plight of its former employees, or the opinion of its current ones, though.
An internal memo, obtained and released on Twitter by Jeremey Barr of The Hollywood Reporter, essentially defends the decision, but claims the company is “open to re-evaluating this decision…”
BuzzFeed management responded internally tonight to the Medium open letter signed by 350 employees demanding that the company pay out earned time off: “We are open to re-evaluating this decision…” pic.twitter.com/llci0v08Bi
— Jeremy Barr (@jeremymbarr) January 28, 2019
This reporter, for one, has zero sympathy for anyone who works, has worked, collaborates with, or assists in any way the terrorists in the leftwing media. Perhaps the unpaid smear merchants will reconsider their life choices and move into a more dignified field. They can learn to code here.
Follow Peter D’Abrosca on Instagram: @pdabrosca
Like Peter D’Abrosca on Facebook: facebook.com/peterdabrosca

Big League Wellness
As Trump Leaves Office, Media Cites Ineffectiveness of Lockdowns and Democratic Leaders Display Eagerness to Reopen
Right on cue.

With President Donald Trump’s impending exit from the White House, many are starting to perceive pivots from Democratic leaders and the mainstream media on the ineffectiveness of lockdowns and the reopening of society.
For example, Newsweek ran an article Thursday titled “COVID Lockdowns May Have No Clear Benefit vs Other Voluntary Measures, International Study Shows.” The study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation, found through a mathematical model that there was “no clear, significant beneficial effect of [more restrictive measures] on [COVID-19] case growth in any country.”
This is just one study, of course, so it may not reflect objective reality any more than one study which concludes that lockdowns saved “millions of lives.” But after getting bombarded with messages from the media that lockdowns were necessary—with the opposite message found only on explicitly conservative outlets like Big League Politics—it may seem too coincidental to see such a story while the changing of the presidential guard takes place.
Not only that, it also comes at a time when some Democratic leaders appear to be chomping at the bit to reopen restaurants, bars, and schools—after several months of harsh insistence that they all must stay closed in the name of “safety” and “public health.”
On Monday, for example, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York called for the reopening of the state’s economy “smartly and safely.”
“We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely,” Cuomo tweeted.
We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely.#SOTS2021
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 11, 2021
Mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot put out a similar call on Thursday, saying that bars and restaurants need to reopen “as quickly as possible” because it will help those businesses survive and reduce the number of large private parties and gatherings.
And incoming president Joe Biden recently pitched a $175 billion plan to return children to school, $130 billion of which would be for public elementary, middle, and high schools, the other $35 billion for colleges and universities. Many teachers unions stubbornly refused to return to in-person classes for the longest time, but now that Biden has come out in support of in-person classes, don’t be surprised to see them suddenly change their tune.
The left is so predictable, isn’t it?
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