The Media Research Center’s days-long celebration over Meta killing off fact-checking continued with Mary Clare Waldron filling in for the daily hate-watch of “The View” in a Jan. 10 post:
On Wednesday morning’s segment of The View, following Meta’s announcement concerning its change in fact checking, hosts were up in arms and ready to argue. What started out as a conversation regarding the necessity of fact checking soon cascaded into the classic argument for free speech. Surprisingly Alyssa Farah Griffin, often noted as the table’s often-wavering conservative, stepped up to not only attempt at explaining the nature of free speech within the issue, but the hypocrisy of her fellow hosts.
From the beginning of the argument it was clear that most of the women at the table were concerned with the fact that, now anyone can say anything online, prompting questions regarding hate speech and the spreading of conspiracy theories. Sunny Hostin, confidently presenting her argument as to the difference between hate speech and free speech being based upon individual opinion.
[…]Though Alyssa attempted to explain the freedoms people have to choose to use or avoid these apps, other hosts seemed pressed to disagree. And as the hypocrisy of her co-workers became more apparent. Joy Behar bizarrely claimed comedy should be “smarter” and not have “majority groups” stereotyping minority groups. “You don’t need to offend me to be funny. I don’t need to offend you to be funny. And so there.”
It is clear once again to any viewer that even a basic understanding of constitutional rights are being misunderstood by our own media, that basic conservatism is not accepted on most networks, and that conversations regarding either seem nearly impossible.
Jorge Bonilla equated fact-checking to “censorship” in a Jan. 12 post:
The left continues to whine over Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to do away with censorship of free speech across his platforms, and allow the marketplace of ideas to decide which ideas win and which do not. While discussing this on Fox News Sunday, Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist Mollie Hemingway laid waste to those organizations vested in online censorship.
[…]“Disinformation” has been dumbed down to “stuff the left doesn’t agree with or that hurts it politically” and utilized this as the basis from which to censor political speech. We all remember how Hunter Biden’s laptop was deemed “Russian disinformation” and subsequently censored, only to be found to be true. Politically inconvenient information was suppressed, with a devastating result. Per our 2020 study:
One of every six Biden voters we surveyed (17%) said they would have abandoned the Democratic candidate had they known the facts about one or more of these news stories. A shift of this magnitude would have changed the outcome in all six of the swing states won by Joe Biden, and Donald Trump would have comfortably won a second term as president.
Bonilla forgot to mention the fact that, as we documented, the poll in that MRC’s “study” was conducted by the right-wing polling firm founded by Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, which raises questions about accuracy and conflicts of interest.
Tom Olohan did more stenography for his boss in a Jan. 14 post:
After a whirlwind of changes at Meta, MRC Founder and President Brent Bozell just made a bold claim about Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
In a Jan. 14 op-ed for The Daily Wire headlined, “Why Facebook’s About-Face Is Turning Heads,” Bozell offered a cautiously optimistic take on recent changes at Meta. Bozell made a convincing case that Zuckerberg may be sincerely committed to transforming his platforms and dismantling his censorship regime.
After Zuckerberg publicly announced Meta was cutting ties with leftist fact-checkers and massively scaling back censorship on the platform, Meta also reportedly demolished its DEI initiatives, including potentially eliminating discriminatory diversity programs.
In his op-ed, Bozell noted that Zuckerberg was making significant changes, many of them public, while largely admitting that his platforms have been run egregiously in the past. Bozell pointed out that Zuckerberg could have done this behind the scenes without opening himself up to criticism, but he chose to announce the changes publicly. Bozell said of Zuckerberg, “[H]e unequivocally admitted conservatives had been right all along; unequivocally acknowledged Meta had violated the public trust by suppressing free speech; and unequivocally committed to a new policy championing the First Amendment.”
Olohan wrote in a Jan. 31 post at the MRC’s Free Speech America site:
Dan Schneider, the vice president of MRC Free Speech America, warned that Zuckerberg was facing a revolt from committed pro-censorship and pro-DEI activists from within Meta. Schneider compared the state of affairs at Meta to an internal rebellion against X owner Elon Musk during the summer of 2023.
“The anti-free speech voices at Meta are outing themselves,” Schneider said. “Like the old Twitter regime, Silicon Valley leftists can’t bear the thought of free speech on their platforms. Discontented activists on Twitter didn’t stop at griping, they used their power to continue censoring voices and blocking long overdue transparency efforts.”
Schneider added, “These Meta rebels should probably rethink this in case Zuckerberg realizes that he can slash his workforce the same way Musk did. They both have their own deep state problems.”
It appears that both Olohan and Schneider approve of Meta’s censorship of Meta employees with differing opinions.
More than a month later, the MRC was still lashing out at people critical of Meta dropping real fact-checking. Alex Christy complained in a Feb. 25 post:
Because HBO’s John Oliver waited until last week to kick off the 2025 season of Last Week Tonight, he is still catching up on all the news he missed. On Sunday, Oliver turned his attention to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to ditch its fact-checking partners, calling the decision “self-serving bullshit.” Oliver also tried to dismiss Big Tech censorship concerns, claiming Facebook and Twitter failed to censor the New York Post’s 2020 story about Hunter Biden’s laptop despite them doing precisely that.
[…]Later, Oliver was trying to downplay the idea that the Post was an example of conservatives being censored as he sarcastically declared, “Hunter Biden’s fucking laptop, a story that Big Tech successfully censored, which is why you’ve never heard about it.”
After recapping the ordeal, Oliver made sure to first remind people that there was nothing to see, “Now, it eventually came out that files from the laptop were legit, but also, that nothing on it revealed illegal or unethical behavior by Joe Biden.”
Christy concluded by huffing: “The fact that Twitter and Facebook failed to stop the Post story does not mean they didn’t try. We don’t apply that standard to anything else. If a terrorist attack fails, that doesn’t mean the terrorist behind it isn’t a terrorist.”