Surprising no-one, Glenn Beck, after joining the recent conservative delegation to Facebook, has defended the social network and its progressive CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, while attacking fellow conservatives for being too demanding of the company.
It’s unclear if he’s gunning for a role in their PR department in the wake of The Blaze’s financial difficulties, but even if he isn’t, it’s hard to tell the difference. He’s written a post on Medium as well as his own personal website, given an interview to TIME, and appeared on his own syndicated talk radio show to defend the social network.
In his post on Medium, whose CEO he met before flying down to Facebook’s sprawling headquarters in his private jet, Beck attacked conservatives who suggested more political diversity in Facebook’s staff. Astonishingly, he accused fellow conservatives who attended the meeting of staging a “Salem Witch Trial” against the company. If that wasn’t enough, Beck also appears to have swallowed Mark Zuckerberg’s argument that the company never discriminated against conservatives.
“I was convinced that Facebook is behaving appropriately and trying to do the right thing” wrote Beck. “They were humble, open, and listened intently to everyone in the room.”
He didn’t stop with one Medium article either. Beck is now talking to the media on behalf of Facebook, giving an interview to TIME in which he again defended the company’s trustworthiness.
“Not one time did I get a sense that they were saying these things to get this off their back. I think they’re sincere” said Beck “Mark [Zuckerberg] looks a man in the eye the entire time. I watched him carefully.”
In addition to maintaining good eye contact, Zuckerberg has also promised the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, that he would tackle allegedly “hateful” criticism of immigration on his platform. His company is openly working with the German government – who hired an ex-Stasi agent to monitor Facebook for anti-immigration rhetoric – to quash dissidents to Merkel’s disastrous immigration policies.
In other words, the man who just convinced Glenn Beck that Facebook won’t suppress conservatives, is already suppressing conservatives. But what do you expect? This is the same man who once called his early users “dumb f*cks” for trusting him with their personal data.
But still, at least he maintains eye contact!
But anyway, enough analysis of Zuck. We all know his history by now. Instead, let’s focus on what his new conservative puppy has to say:
I know I will be blasted by people for my position on this.I will be called a sellout. I will be accused of taking money or cowering for fear of retribution.
Not necessarily. Glenn’s critics might just consider him superhumanly gullible. That’s certainly the impression he gave off on his The Blaze TV show, where he appeared to be awestruck both by being in the presence of Mark Zuckerberg, and by the impressiveness of Facebook’s headquarters.
Mark Zuckerberg walks in and the first thing that you’ll think about when you’re sitting … I was right across the table from Mark.
He’s a very small man and … he honestly looks like he’s 12. That’s one thing, I looked across the table and I’m like “you look so young and so healthy and like you just got off your skateboard” and you’re like “yeah but I have more money than probably everybody in your state.”
Everyone was there – Dana Perino was up on the roof of the Facebook building which is just an incredible building, this is their executive offices and it was… it was… it’s an amazing building!
Perhaps he was too busy getting Zuck’s autograph and looking through the HQ’s big glass windows to notice Facebook lacked transparency where it actually mattered – at the meeting itself. When he did find out, he wasn’t that bothered by it.
Now, no one can make direct quotes, that was deal going into the room, Facebook’s deal. You can’t quote us directly and nobody can quote us in the room. You can talk about what you felt and what you heard, but it’s your opinion; let’s not throw everybody under the bus. So – I think that’s good and I think that’s fair. So let’s do that.
That was what was so impressive yesterday at Facebook. They said to us the exact opposite of what it feels like to a conservative that the media and even the Republican Party have said. The Republican Party has said: “Conservatives, you don’t belong here. And we’re not really listening.”
You’re a little shocked at how young he looks, but the most important thing is he makes eye contact with everyone. If you’re talking, he’s staring dead into your eyes. If he’s talking to you, dead into your eyes. And it’s a little disconcerting at times because he’s not flamboyant so he has very few movements as he’s speaking and you can almost tell he’s using all of his energy for the gears in his head. As he’s listening to you know he’s making a thousand judgements on what you’re saying. He’s really listening… REALLY impressive guy.I was impressed that he actually listened. And I though he was extraordinarily genuine, as was everybody on the board that he picked
It was like affirmative action for conservatives. When did conservatives start demanding quotas AND diversity training?.
What happened to us? When did we become them? When did we become the people who demand the Oscars add black actors based on race?
In other words, Beck is a “conservative” who’s fine with the dominant social network on the planet being staffer entirely by hyper-progressives. Beck argues that it’s their right as a private entity — and he is, of course, correct. But just because they have the right to do it doesn’t imply that they should — or that they shouldn’t face a backlash from users, stakeholders, and investors.
Without knowing what was said at the meeting, it’s impossible to know what was promised to Beck and other conservatives in order to make them so docile. Facebook has promised nothing other than an internal investigation, and granted conservatives nothing but a PR-focused, behind-closed-doors meeting.
The attendees seem to have focused entirely on the trending news controversy, and ignored Facebook’s year-long track record of open censorship in Europe. They’ve also ignored Zuckerberg’s overtures to the Chinese government, which doesn’t bode well for free speech on the platform. And they’ve ignored the reports of critics of immigration in the U.S, who report widespread difficulties on Facebook.
Once again, it’s worth returning to Mark Zuckerberg’s famous comments about his original social media users, at Harvard:
“They trust me” said Zuckerberg. “Dumb f*cks.”
You can follow Allum Bokhari on Twitter, add him on Facebook, and download Milo Alert! for Android to be kept up to date on his latest articles.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.