Seeing the front page of his beloved Washington Post plastered with campaign ads for President Donald Trump sent one journalism professor into a fit of rage. And the angrier he got, the more people in the comments laughed.
“No, @washingtonpost, no, no NO. How dare you? Were these pieces of silver worth the price of your soul?” City University of New York journalism professor Jeff Jarvis tweeted on Thursday, after seeing an ad slamming Joe Biden emblazoned across the banner of the Washington Post’s website.
No, @washingtonpost, no, no NO. How dare you? Were these pieces of silver worth the price of your soul? pic.twitter.com/tTCYYEj1Dl
The horror continued as Jarvis then discovered video ads for the Trump campaign within the site. “The Post not only sold its front page but also sold a takeover. Who the f**k decided this? I am so ashamed of you, @washingtonpost,” he tweeted, before accusing the newspaper of a “bilious insult to democracy,” tagging it multiple times, and demanding that publisher Fred Ryan be “held to account.”
The Post not only sold its front page but also sold a takeover. Who the fuck decided this? I am so ashamed of you, @washingtonpost. pic.twitter.com/2zWrOOKJh5
The Post not only sold its front page but also sold a takeover. Who the fuck decided this? I am so ashamed of you, @washingtonpost. pic.twitter.com/2zWrOOKJh5
Jarvis’s rant earned him little sympathy, as commenters jeered at his meltdown. “This is like a 30-tweet thread because he doesn’t understand targeted ads,” one jibed. “It’s ok,” another replied. “It’s not like he’s a journalism professor…”
This is like a 30-tweet thread because he doesn’t understand targeted ads. https://t.co/Ou1AXMdUHd
It’s the “how dare you” that makes me giggle. https://t.co/CgjdvNrI8a
Ads on the Washington Post’s website are usually tailored for individual users, based on their browsing history and activity on the site. The Post discussed this in an article last year, boasting that its targeting technology gives “brands and publishers highly customizable capabilities to target specific audiences on The Post’s site.”
However, the saturation of Trump ads was likely not targeted at Jarvis. Just last week, the New York Times reported that the Trump campaign spent a “high seven-figure” sum purchasing ad slots on the sites of the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News, as well as unskippable ads on YouTube and Hulu. The buy was timed to coincide with the Democratic National Convention, which will conclude on Thursday night with a speech from presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Be that as it may, Jarvis was still mocked for throwing “a temper tantrum over the placement of a political ad he disagrees with.” Amid the laughter, the Washington Examiner’s editor, Jay Caruso, offered the enraged professor some advice: “Install an ad blocker on your browser.”
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