I notice the same dynamics are playing out on social media that played out in traditional media years ago. Conservatives cry bias, without evidence that any bia

I notice the same dynamics are playing out on social media that played out in traditional media years ago. Conservatives cry bias, without evidence that any bias is appearing in the actual product. As Rich Bond said over 25 years ago[0]: “There is some strategy to it [bashing the 'liberal' media] ... If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is 'work the refs.' Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack on the next one.” It’s a useful myth, where blatantly partisan Fox News bills itself as “fair and balanced”. I’ve seen this play out in my own career where, claims of political bias was cast against algorithms I developed because random extreme partisan website wasn’t being put in the top slot for a trending topic. It was disingenuous criticism. We’re seeing the same thing again because foreign troll farms are being shutdown, you find yourself in a minority, the. You have to look to some grand conspiracy because your filter bubble was popped. There’s nothing here but the old tired tactic of promoting a false equivalence, which is paying political dividends. See Facebook’s fact checking partners, 4 respected non partisan orgs, and the explicitly conservativly partisan Weekly Standard, which used its veto against an explicitly liberally partisan organization.[1] It’s really weird to have a partisan org on your ostensibly nonpartisan editorial board. It does make sense if you’re throwing conservatives a bone by giving them a vote and not a liberal org. So the refs are successfully worked. When it comes to Twitter itself, Jack has shown through his actions that he either fundamentally misunderstand what is going on, or he actually supports the extreme views on his site. [0] https://archives.cjr.org/politics/a_cynics_take_on_media_bias.php https://archives.cjr.org/politics/a_cynics_take_on_media_bia... [1] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/12/17848026/facebook-thinkprogress-weekly-standard https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/12/17848026/f...