Most of us think of BuzzFeed reporters as sitting in front of a computer all day, but so many of your stories are very anecdotal and scene-based. Is that normal?
There are some reporters who are operators themselves; they’re really good at getting people to reveal stuff on the phone. I’m not as good at that. It’s funny, because we do have that reputation, completely. I think one of the first days I was out with Anthony Weiner, I went over and introduced myself, like: “I’m Ruby Cramer from BuzzFeed,” and I was about to launch into a question and he was like, “BuzzFeed? You actually go out for stuff? You actually leave your office.” But I don’t blame him for saying that; I get that a lot. I think the scene pieces are fun, and the candidates are such that it’s a personality-based race as much as it’s based on issues.
What are some of your favorite stories so far, and how did you get them?
I liked doing the Rockaways piece [“Anthony Weiner, Feeling ‘So Right,’ Gets Back to His Base in Rockaway”]. With that piece, I saw his schedule for the day, and he had a bunch of stops that day, but he had this beach walk in the afternoon for like an hour. I thought, okay, I have to go because that’s the community that’s really—I think I called it his base. But those were his constituents when he was in Congress, and that’s where a lot of the people really did love him. Anthony Weiner was someone who was in Congress for 12 years and only passed one bill, but what he does have a good record in was constituent services. I run into people who say, “I remember one time when I called Anthony Weiner and got my street lamps fixed.” It was just kind of a fun day, and of course he was talking about “This feels so right” over and over and over again. It’s an interesting picture too: Anthony Weiner barefoot on the beach basically just loving regional politics.
There’s this one piece I did after The [New York] Times came out with this piece that he did nothing in congress. I was at a forum where I asked him about this one anecdote that I became obsessed with, which was that in 2005, he threw a salad against the wall. I actually have to go back and read it to you because it’s so funny. I mean, who throws a salad against the wall? Okay, here: “In 2005, he became so irritated with a staff member that he threw a salad against the wall, then left the room as the dressing slowly dripped, leaving a stain.”
At this forum I was like, “What happened with the salad?” And he said, “I was just talking about the salad with Josh [a friend and former body man; nobody seems to know his last name], and that story is totally made up.” And then [Josh] gave the best explanation ever which is that the door just opened and there was a salad on the wall. What does that even mean? And then I just wrote this short story about the salad. It was kind of about his reputation as a bad boss, but mostly about the salad. And a lot of people liked it.
Is that the story where it ends with him making his aide run out in the rain for a bigger umbrella?
