In yesterday’s post, All The News That’s Fit To Print, I noted my disappointment with the mainstream media for forcing a perspective on readers. I would prefer the media present me with the information and, on controversial points, arguments for and against, so that I am informed enough to make my own decision. I don’t want to be told that someone made a false claim. Give me the information about the claim and let me decide if it’s false.
Mark Zuckerberg says White House ‘pressured’ Meta to ‘censor’ Covid-19 content
It’s only been 24 hours since I wrote that post and today’s headline on CNBC is Mark Zuckerberg says White House ‘pressured’ Meta to ‘censor’ Covid-19 content.
My first stop after reading this was to go to a left-leaning site, CNN, and see if they reported the story. Sure enough, here it is. A search for “censor” on MSNBC’s home page today yielded no results.
What Happened?
According to the CNBC article, “The Biden Administration “pressured” Facebook-parent Meta
to “censor” content related to Covid-19, the social media giant’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg alleged, adding that he regrets some of the decisions taken in relation to the U.S. government’s requests.”
Does it Matter?
I guess I’m part of the media as well (who’d’a thought??), so I’ll let you decide, but I’ll give you my perspective on this.
But First, Some Context
Aside from my day to day experiences, I rely on the news to educate and inform. How would I have known COVID existed without the news media? Think about that for a sec.
Pick any topic.
Reuters reported today:
How would any of us know that something was going on with the Ukraine and Russia without the media? Most of us haven’t visited. We can’t hear or see what’s going on over there, even if we stand up real tall and squint.
We Rely on the News to Shape Our Opinions
Do we stand by Russia or Ukraine on this one? Why?
We may know someone who is Russian or Ukrainian and they may shape our perspective, but if not, we rely on the media.
I grew up in the 60’s. Folks of my generation know that Russia is evil. How do we know?
Just watch Rocky and Bullwinkle. Boris and Natasha, with their thick Russian accents, were always out to get “moose and squirrel”. Boris’ last name was Badenov. How obvious?
The Media
The media isn’t just CNN and Fox. It’s TV, Movies, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook, and even novels, for those who still read books.
Does it Matter?
Back to the important question.
To me, it matters a great deal.
As much as I’m frustrated with media bias, government control of the media is really scary. How many have read 1984 by George Orwell? In the book, the Ministry of Truth controls all media. When Big Brother changes his mind about which country Oceana is at war with, all media is updated and the old enemy becomes a friend and a new enemy is born. There is no record of the war with the old enemy.
Without an unbiased media to educate and inform us, how will we know? Think about your preferred candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Do you feel strongly about one candidate over the other? How did you come about your conviction? Have you met the candidate? Have you discussed the issues that are important to you with them?
Perhaps, but if you’re like me and you haven’t had a face to face discussion with your candidate, a huge part of your information, and thus your opinion, has been shaped by the media.
With media bias, I can rely on the fact that Fox News will give me one perspective and CNN will give me another and I can use allsides to help me find some truth in between. But if the Biden administration is intervening, how do I know? Maybe Joe can publish a list of news sites he’s influencing?
To me it’s a slippery slope. I may agree with the position the government is advocating, so I let this slide, but what happens when the government’s perspective on an issue conflicts with mine? If the government has influence over the media, it has the ability to shape opinions. Here’s a story about how this is working out in China.
Wrap-Up
Good for Mark Zuckerberg for admitting to this now, but I’m quite disappointed that Facebook allowed the Biden administration to influence the news. And I’m even more disappointed that the Biden administration felt that it was OK to do this.
Let me know what you think.
…and another thing
I did some further reading at aljazeera – thanks to the 2 Mikes for the tip. This article goes on to discuss the Wuhan lab leak and the Hunter Biden laptop stories.
Lab Leak
“…Under this policy, Facebook took down posts claiming that COVID-19 was a man-made virus, manufactured and leaked from a lab in China’s Wuhan. Amid speculation of how COVID originated, some scientists said the lab leak theory deserved further investigation, while many others debunked it.
In February 2023, The Wall Street Journal acquired a classified report from the US Department of Energy stating the virus was probably the result of a leak from a lab. In March 2023, FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency assessed that a lab leak from Wuhan was likely the cause of the outbreak. These revelations bolstered the argument of those who said the initial censorship had been wrong.“
Laptop
“The FBI warned us about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma in the lead up to the 2020 election,” Zuckerberg said.
This alludes to Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who was a board member of Ukrainian gas company Burisma. It was reported in 2020 that the younger Biden asked the US government for assistance on behalf of the company while his father was vice president and that evidence for this was found on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which he left at a repair store in Delaware in April 2019.
In 2020, Trump was in power. But the Republican flag-bearer and some of his supporters have long alleged a “deep state” plot to hurt him politically, though they have yet to present any evidence.
Zuckerberg wrote in the letter that, because of the FBI warning, he “demoted” the news story while waiting for it to be fact-checked. Meta describes the demotion of stories as a practice through which its algorithm reduces a story’s distribution on the feeds of consumers. The billionaire expressed regret about this too.
He added that he has revised policies to ensure this does not happen again and that Meta no longer demotes stories while awaiting fact-checking.
Wrap-Up…again
While I checked a few sources, it was not until I’d done additional reading at aljezeera, that I discovered the extent of the COVID issue, and I had not seen any of the info on the Hunter Biden Laptop fiasco. Pressure from the Biden administration to keep information like this from the American people seems wrong to me, but I’ll let you make up your own mind.
Let me know your thoughts.