Neighbor Ben Smith Goes To Washington! BuzzFeed’s Editor-In-Chief Interviews President Barack Obama

While many of us were trying out Asya, planning our Valentine’s Day, and anticipating the Cold War coming to our neighborhood (well, or at least a show about KGB spies), one of our  neighbors, BuzzFeed’s Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith, was discussing the actual KGB, health care, marriage equality, Kayla Mueller, and much more in his sit-down interview with President Barack Obama this past Tuesday (BuzzFeed’s first-ever interview with a sitting president).

We were chomping at the bit to learn more about the interview, and Ben, who is an advisor to our company, Corner Media, and married to our publisher, Liena Zagare, graciously gave us some insight into his sit-down with President Obama.

When you found out you were going to interview the President, what did you think?

I covered his campaign but had actually never interviewed him. The most one-on-one time we’d ever spent was when I was on the treadmill in some motel in Ottumwa, Iowa in 2007, and he came in and got on the stair master – and I tried, and mostly failed, to make small talk. Mostly, I shouted questions to him at press conferences about, like, Bill Ayers.

During the whole process, at what point do you think you were the most nervous?

I was most stressed out about choosing the questions. I only had 20 minutes and wanted to use it well — to ask things likely to get meaningful answers, and to challenge him on things he might otherwise not talk about.

We were super interested in the way you prepared for the interview, including how you gathered questions from readers via email, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. From which platform did you receive the biggest response? Were there any hilarious questions that there was no way you could ask the president – but want to tell us about?

The snaps were pretty great. A lot of weed (I asked one of those, though not from Snapchat) and one “how beautiful is this dog,” with a picture of a very pretty dog.

As you pointed out, this was BuzzFeed’s first interview with a sitting president – do you think this interview changes things for the news organization? If so, how?

It was a good moment for BuzzFeed News — and I think evidence that having a mass audience supports, rather than gets in the way, of your ability to do tough stories.

Did you convince President Obama to come to Ditmas Park? Can we expect to see him and Hillary Clinton at Lea?

Hillary was reportedly considering a Brooklyn HQ, so who knows. That antique store building across from Lea is still vacant I think.

To read the full transcript of Ben’s interview, you can go here, and to read about it (and watch the videos), go here. And, to see President Obama use a selfie stick on BuzzFeed, you should definitely go here.