> What does seem clear now is that Facebook’s executives’ statements about video should not have been a factor in news publishers’ decisions to lay off their ed

> What does seem clear now is that Facebook’s executives’ statements about video should not have been a factor in news publishers’ decisions to lay off their editorial staffs. But it’s hard not to conclude that publishers heard that rhapsodizing about the future and assumed that Facebook knew better than they did, that Facebook’s data must be more accurate than their own data was, that Facebook was perceiving something that they could not. That their own eyes were wrong. If you're making massive, sweeping changes to the structure of your business and product offering based on Facebook PR, you deserve to go out of business. What FB said could have even been true and these organizations could have staffed up on all video only to later become victims of an algorithm change or some arbitrary FB rule in the future.