Facebook, Google, and Twitter are making the same mistakes big news outlets made decades ago, trying to placate hyperpartisan critics who are “working the refs”
The new referees in American politics are Facebook, Google and Twitter, and they would be wise to pay attention to lessons the old media tried to learn. Tweets: @rottenindenmark , @ryanlcooper , @markdistef , @jesselehrich , @mspro , @benyt , @benyt , @tvietor08 , @jayrosen_nyu , @benyt , @hshaban , @adamhdomby , @anildash , @mehdirhasan , @benyt , @caseynewton , @hoofnagle , @caitleg , @mattzeitlin , @ritholtz , @sanhotree , and @asemota See also Mediagazer Tweets: Michael Hobbes / @rottenindenmark : One of the main dilemmas in media is that if you apply objective standards of fact-checking, you will end up “censoring” right-wing news sites. You can have accurate information or you can have balance between left and right, but you can't have both. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Ryan Cooper / @ryanlcooper : conservatives have pulled their classic ref-working routine on Big Tech, and it worked great (probably with some active connivance of leadership, esp at Facebook) https://www.nytimes.com/... Mark Di Stefano / @markdistef : The UK-version of the Working the Refs-phemonea is the truly ridiculous amount of time UK political culture, right and left, spends yelling about the BBC. Even after three years on this island, I still find it mind boggling. https://twitter.com/... Jesse Lehrich / @jesselehrich : “Facebook, Google & Twitter are making the same mistakes the news media made decades ago” — allowing “false balance & false symmetry” to supersede truth. https://twitter.com/... Michael Seemann / @mspro : this: „The global surge in misinformation isn't a matter of code, or an eternal political truth, or the structure of information. It's just how the social-media-fueled, right-wing populism of 2020 works." https://www.nytimes.com/... Ben Smith / @benyt : How Trump Allies Work the Refs in Silicon Valley https://www.nytimes.com/... Ben Smith / @benyt : And a scoop from 1980: Future NYT executive editor Max Frankel furious that his boss, Punch Sulzberger, would sit down with right-wing media critic “nitwits” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Tommy Vietor / @tvietor08 : This piece perfectly captures the way tech platforms have been browbeaten by bad-faith Republican attacks to the point where they're more afraid of being called partisan than of spreading harmful disinformation. https://www.nytimes.com/... Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu : Ben Smith in his new column on working the refs writes about “a reality that Facebook won't say aloud: The pro-Trump media is in the misinformation business with scale and energy that lacks parallel.” There is nothing comparable on the Democratic side. https://www.nytimes.com/... Ben Smith / @benyt : Some new news in here: NBCUniversal CEO has floated replacing Chuck Todd on Meet The Press with Nicolle Wallace, though it doesn't seem likely to happen https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Hamza Shaban / @hshaban : @CaseyNewton @benyt the false balance in broadcast and print journalism is already internalized in ways that make the ref working on the tech giants seem transparently obvious. Legacy media arguably hasn't learned these lessons. Fearing conservative backlash is baked into appearance of objectivity. Adam H. Domby / @adamhdomby : Alternate headline: “Facebook let's themselves get gaslighted by the GOP: set up standard that benefits and rewards the right wing gas lighters privileging conservative's speech over others.” https://twitter.com/... Anil Dash / @anildash : Though the right-wing manipulation of tech & media has been obvious and incredibly damaging for years, it's still good to see the NYT acknowledge the mechanics of it on the record. Doesn't mean anybody will stop appeasing the white supremacists, alas. https://twitter.com/... Mehdi Hasan / @mehdirhasan : “in the Trump era, a specific kind of misinformation on social media is a central tactic of the right...Facebook, Google and Twitter are...looking for balance rather than confronting the plain reality of the moment.” - spot on from @benyt: https://www.nytimes.com/... Ben Smith / @benyt : Credit for turning that document up to @rickperlstein and his new history Reaganland https://www.amazon.com/... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : Another excellent @benyt column, this one on how tech platforms' desire for a false balance allows them to get worked continuously by the right https://www.nytimes.com/... Chris Hoofnagle / @hoofnagle : Why? Ben Smith nails it, in harmony with AGM's observations: “...The pro-Trump media is in the misinformation business with scale and energy that lacks parallel” Facebook is addicted to these users because they're engaged. https://www.nytimes.com/... @caitleg : Liars lie, and there is no objectivity or balance that can change that fact without willfully misleading your readers. Stop trying. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Matthew Zeitlin / @mattzeitlin : “...a reality that Facebook won't say aloud: The pro-Trump media is in the misinformation business with scale and energy that lacks parallel, and in part because simply repeating the president often means spreading misinformation. https://www.nytimes.com/... Barry Ritholtz / @ritholtz : When you are losing the meritocratic battle of ideas, working the refs is an effective compensating technique. https://www.nbcnews.com/... Sanho Tree / @sanhotree : “According to internal discussions from the last 6 months, Facebook has relaxed its rules so that conservative pages, including those run by Breitbart, former Fox News personalities Diamond & Silk, PragerU and the pundit Charlie Kirk, were not penalized for violations...” https://twitter.com/... Osaretin Victor Asemota / @asemota : Meanwhile, their algorithm will suspend me for something I posted way back in 2009. https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer