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Observer Article On Online Media Hypocrisy Provides Context For Criticism Of BuzzFeed’s Own Methods

This archived screenshot preserves the Observer article “Spare Us The Sanctimony: The Gross Hypocrisy of Online Media in the Nude Photo Leak”, which criticised online publishers for moralising about the behaviour of others while benefiting from the same traffic-driven culture they publicly condemned. The item is significant because it provides useful background to the wider CEN/BuzzFeed evidence chain: BuzzFeed was not operating outside the online media economy it criticised, but inside the same ecosystem of viral packaging, outrage, selective morality, celebrity material and commercial traffic incentives. The screenshot matters because the CEN allegations were framed as a moral exposé of fake or irresponsible viral news, yet BuzzFeed itself had faced repeated criticism over native advertising, deleted posts, idea theft, plagiarism, advertiser influence and the blurred boundary between journalism and monetised attention. Read alongside the BuzzFeed advertising, MailOnline-bashing and creator-complaint material, this item helps document the broader hypocrisy argument: online media could attack tabloid behaviour while adopting, repackaging or profiting from similar attention-driven methods itself.

Source

Part of Central European News & Mike Leidig v BuzzFeed (US Second Circuit Libel Case) – Archived Web Screenshots

Europe Media newsX CIC Published 3 May 2026 at 13:59 Source: 16 July 2016

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Observeronline mediaBuzzFeedGawkerDaily MailMailOnlinenude photo leakmedia hypocrisytraffic-driven mediaviral contentonline outragecelebrity coveragetabloid medianative advertisingeditorial standardsdigital publishingCENMike Leidigsource evidencearchived web screenshotlibel case evidence

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Credit: newsX

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File SCREEN - Spare Us The Sanctimony_ The Gross Hypocrisy of Online Media in the_ - [observer.com].pdf · 1.3 MB Download

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