Bias Checkup: Zuckerberg On Censorship

Here’s a fun exercise, let’s see how two of the biggest news outlets in the country, one stereotypically more liberal and the other stereotypically more conservative, chose to represent the same story. Given Zuckerberg’s actual quote and the unpartisan nature of this issue, this should be a fairly straightforward chance to identify potential bias. Let’s get started.

First Things First, Here’s What Happened:

Lest we judge too soon, it’s important to know what Mark Zuckerberg actually said, so that we can draw reasonable conclusions about how the news outlets are presenting it. In an interview that covered censorship and in the wake of Facebook’s recent policy change that allows politicians to publish ads with Information that is known to be false, Zuckerberg said “my belief is that in a democracy, I don’t think that we want private companies censoring politicians in the news.”

The Headlines:

Here were the headlines of the stories from CNN and Fox News which covered that interview.

CNN: “Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg: Private companies should not censor politicians”

Fox News: “Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg rejects calls for Trump's social media to be shut down in exclusive interview”

The Verdict:

This is only one example, so perhaps it’s just a misrepresentation, but based on this exercise alone, “fair and balanced” seems like a stretch.