Media is getting played again amplifying this willfully dishonest stunt. Quick quiz: who’s the only presidential candidate to get a full-throated public convention endorsement from a current Facebook board member? nytimes.com/2018/08/28/tec…
There’s obviously no policy truth to these assertions. (for example: there’s no call for increased regulation of social networks within Facebook. The only dissent is those opposing or advancing bigotry.) So why now? To increase pressure alongside Trump’s specious calls of bias.
The goal here is to undermine the major social networks because they’re the only distribution channel that has any ability to hold the hate-mongers accountable. Bannon has talked publicly about the social networks being his enemies, and media will play right along with this.
*Median* income at Facebook is about a quarter million dollars a year. You think those conservatives are seeing pushback about reducing taxes? Or is it that they just want to get enough attention to amplify Trump’s attempts to undermine the major social networks?
How this plays out: Trumpists will coin a phrase akin to “fake news” to present the social networks as biased, without any evidence. (The birtherism playbook.) Old media, being unable to resist this tactic & aware of legitimate criticisms of these companies, will play along.
Because the defenses will come from intellectually honest people, they’ll be nuanced. (“Yes, these networks have too much power & have been bad at enforcing it, but no, that doesn’t mean they’re being biased here.”) Nuance doesn’t play on TV or in print, so the truth will lose.
And the “remedy”, just like with the bogus cries of newsfeed censorship two years ago, will be that bigoted views and misinformation will get unfettered amplification as the social networking platforms try to “prove” they’re unbiased to a cohort that was lying from the start.
Anyway, if you want to do a press story, there are more current Facebook employees who are presently undergoing cancer treatment & wishing for universal healthcare than were part of the bogus “political diversity” stunt. Want to write a trend story about them, or no?
