Fox News host: Internet stacked against 'conservative thought'
Does Facebook silence conservative voices? Does the entire Internet?
Sure seems so, at least to Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, who touched on the recent controversy surrounding Facebook's trending topics on his show on Thursday night.
His take? You're damn right Facebook is downplaying conservative voices. And while we're at it, so is...Yahoo?
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"I have been saying this from the jump on Yahoo and these other deliverers, you can't find conservative opinion on them," O'Reilly said during Wednesday evening's edition of his show, "The O'Reilly Factor."
"I think that whole Internet is stacked against any kind of traditional conservative thought," O'Reilly said.
O'Reilly's comments come a few days after a report from Gizmodo alleged that some contracts working on Facebook's trending topics had downplayed conservative media. The story did not implicate Facebook's leadership or allege any manipulation in its influential News Feed.
Facebook has clarified that any such action is against its policies. Tom Stocky, head of search at Facebook, also responded that the company had found no evidence of any biases against conservative media.
Conservative media's reaction to the story has varied. Numerous publications that spoke with Mashable said that while they did believe the story, it did not surprise them, nor did they think Facebook as a company discriminated against them.
The allegations were serious enough to spur a Senate inquiry on the issue.
David Bossie, president of conservative advocacy group and O'Reilly's guest during the segment, concurred with his assessment.
Bossie and O'Reilly picked out Stocky, making a crack about his youthful appearance and noting that his family gave $5,400 to the Hillary Clinton campaign.
"When I saw this guy, I thought they were remaking 'Leave It to Beaver,' and he was going to play Wally," O'Reilly said.
Bossie pointed out that Facebook as a private company can make decisions on how it wants to operate.
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Topics Facebook
Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.
