Remembering BuzzFeed News, and why you can't compare Frank Ocean to Beyoncé

25:00Buzzfeed News shuts down, and Frank Ocean bows out of Coachella

It's been a big week in the world of pop culture: BuzzFeed News is no more, Beau Is Afraid is dividing audiences everywhere, and Frank Ocean returned to the stage for the first time since 2017.

To make sense of it all, culture critics Sarah-Tai Black, Niko Stratis and A. Harmony joined host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to consider the fallout of the Internet's favorite newsroom, and dive into Frank Ocean's controversial Coachella performance last weekend — including his subsequent departure from the festival's lineup.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, including a review of Ari Aster's divisive new film Beau Is Afraid, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast on your favourite podcast player.

The end of BuzzFeed News

Elamin: I want to start with the story about BuzzFeed News, because BuzzFeed News just announced that it's shutting down the website. I think it's kind of important to talk about. I think it's important to distinguish for people: BuzzFeed is the site that has the fun quizzes and listicles; BuzzFeed News is a fully-operational newsroom. It had a bunch of bureaus in a bunch of countries, including Canada. It regularly won awards. It published long-form journalism. It won a Pulitzer two years ago.

I'm a little bit biased and maybe defensive about this because I worked in that newsroom for, like, seven-and-a-half years, but that announcement happened literally on the same day that Twitter announced that it will unverify anyone who doesn't pay for a blue checkmark. Beyoncé was unverified. Niko Stratis was unverified. The Pope was unverified. Lady Gaga was also unverified. It really feels like a significant moment because I think the end of Twitter verification and also the end of BuzzFeed News — to me, that represented an idealized version of the Internet. Niko, what do you make of this?

Niko: I mean, I was just sandwiched between Beyoncé and the Pope, so I'm still sort of reeling from that a little bit. But Elamin, you wrote a little thread yesterday on Twitter about your time at BuzzFeed and the community of people that you worked with, and I think that sort of speaks to [the idea that] I think we maybe are losing the communal aspect of all of these things.

We are seeing this idea of newsrooms being stripped away because people are thinking, "Oh, it's all about community journalists now." But that's not it. But we've devalued these systems to such a degree that of course we can see them as expendable. Where do we have the space where we can see the fallout of this situation? I don't know. 

Elamin: Sarah-Tai, what does that make you think of?

Sarah-Tai: I guess it's easy to make jabs over BuzzFeed News because of the kind of conflations you were talking about earlier with the listicles, but especially watching publications like The New York Times launching full-scale attacks on trans folks, it was one of the few platforms that had the resources to do long-form journalism that was actually informative and knowledgeable and seemed to actually care about the issues it was covering. I think that given the industry, it was a great platform for younger journalists and more diverse journalists who might have been gatekept out of other platforms. In terms of the checkmarks, it's kind of funny watching everyone scramble like naked mole rats. But also, [I'm] concerned for myself as someone who was recently the victim of a phishing scam at the ripe age of 33, that I will now get very confused on Twitter.

Elamin: Harmony, what does this make you think of, this idea that this moment in the Internet has kind of passed?

A. Harmony: Well, first of all, with losing my blue check, I don't even know who I am anymore. This could be Halle Berry speaking. We have no idea.

Elamin: It is, in fact, Halle Berry speaking.

A. Harmony: The truth is out now. No, but really, in both of these aspects, I think about the future of trust and the Internet. We have built such a relationship with the Internet that we have come to trust it implicitly, but we had these checks and balances in place to help us with that and help build that trusting relationship. Now that these are slowly being taken away, I worry that that trusting relationship is still there, especially with a certain generation. If you think of Gen Alpha and younger generations who didn't have to think about, "What is this source? Can I trust this? How do I determine a verified source versus one that isn't?" Because they had these safeguards in place. What do we do now? Especially with misinformation on the rise, I think it's a really scary time that we're heading into in terms of how do we consume this media that's put in our face 24/7. So it'll be interesting to see what the fallout is, but I'm a little worried.

Elamin: Scary time notwithstanding, immediately after this, I'm holding a support group for everybody who's been unverified yesterday. It'll be great.

Frank Ocean's Coachella performance falls flat

Elamin: Coachella last Sunday was Frank Ocean's first major show in six years and the only thing that might have matched the fan anticipation going into it, is the fury and the backlash that followed. Niko, what happened?

Niko: Well, an ice rink.

Elamin: An ice rink.

Niko: Let's start with an ice rink that never appeared. The story that we know is that there was a leg or an ankle injury that Frank sustained. There was supposed to be an ice rink and there were supposed to be skaters; this is important because neither of those things appeared. His set started an hour late, which made people upset. If you've ever been at a big music festival and you're waiting for somebody like Frank Ocean to start and Frank Ocean is not starting, the vibe in the room is going to be off — I will say that.

Elamin: It changes.

Niko: It changes pretty dramatically, and especially because people are waiting. A lot of people paid specifically just to go see Frank Ocean because it's been so long. He eventually takes the stage. People are describing it as very stiff and awkward — he's sort of just standing there, and there's people walking around and blocking the view. We found this out later, they're supposed to be ice skaters and an ice rink, but because of his apparent injury, he decided to not do this. And so it was a bit of an awkward mess that was still good. He performed really well, the songs sounded great. He wasn't livestreamed like everybody else was. And then on the next day, he pulled out. 

Elamin: Sarah-Tai, I think it's interesting that we didn't learn about Frank Ocean's injuries until after the fact, and even still a lot of fans were pretty disappointed even knowing that context, because they were expecting this big show. Based on the footage that you saw, do they have a point?

Sarah-Tai: I mean, I feel bad for everyone involved, first of all. But it's just strange to expect a big show from Frank Ocean. At the end of the day, he's not an artist we look to be a performer — like he's not a Beyoncé or a Gaga. He's always been elusive. He's always got the album that never comes. Frank Ocean releases music when Frank Ocean feels like, you know? On top of that, real Frank Ocean fans know that Frank's probably just not going to show up…. at this point, it's part of the allure. And I think that Frank Ocean fans are some of the most emotionally masochistic people…. So I feel bad for everyone, but I'm not surprised at all.

Elamin: Harmony, where do you land on Frank Ocean's performance here?

A. Harmony: I agree with Sarah-Tai in that Frank Ocean fans don't expect much from Frank Ocean. But I think in this day and age when concert tickets are more expensive than they ever have been and people are taking out second mortgages to go to Coachella, I feel like artists owe us a little bit more. I think there are so many spaces behind the scenes in the music industry if you want to be elusive and you want the art to speak for you and blah, blah, blah. You can be a songwriter. You never have to set foot on stage, you never have to do the public-facing stuff that you don't like to do. I think more artists like Frank Ocean need to be honest with themselves about what they can deliver, what they want to deliver, and maybe re-structure their careers at this point. If you don't want to give the fans what they're there for, then don't show up. Don't accept the show and don't headline Coachella after Beyoncé and what she gave us.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender.