Appearing early Tuesday evening on the Fox Business Network’s Evening Edit, Media Research Center Founder and President Brent Bozell urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to remain strong and refuse to give in to the “social media brown shirts” at his company, which have demanded censorship of President Trump.
In contrast, Bozell noted that Zuckerberg's employees haven’t made the same demands about truly repugnant and violent groups like Antifa, which have been allowed to proliferate on social media platforms without consequence. By doing so, Bozell said at the end of his appearance that they’re “aiding and abetting” riots across America.
Bozell began by noting to host Liz MacDonald that “the protests aren't about the fact that cops have been killed, cops have been beaten, cops are being shot at” and that, over the last week, “[i]nnocent people are being beaten within an inch of their lives all over the country.”
All the while, Bozell pointed out that people are wasting energy “complaining about a tweet by the President of the United States and they want him censored” while, according to MRC TechWatch, “119 different Antifa outlets that were being allowed on Facebook.”
“That's okay, but the President of the United States? No, no, because they don't like a twit of his — a post of his. Mark Zuckerberg is right. He’s got to be right because if he knows if he gives in to these social media brown shirts, then the Facebook platform is kaput, because everyone will know there is not that much difference between their rhetoric and the rhetoric that is going on in the streets right now,” Bozell added.
MacDonald also brought up Twitter, which has started fact-checking the President and assigning content warnings to his tweets while “identical posts” on Facebook have been allowed to “stand.” Here was Bozell’s reaction to that split:
Well you have every right to be controversial. You have every right to have insightful rhetoric that doesn't incite violence. I don't think the President was inciting violence. You do have the — the inciting of violence on the other side. Look, Facebook is not — Mark Zuckerberg is saying the right things but Facebook isn't. Look, they brought in an oversight committee. The oversight committee consists of people, the oversight people are, were condemning Trump before all of this. There is one who publicly called for him to be censored from social media, and they are overseeing free speech at Facebook, so that’s where it is going. Look they're all playing off of each other. It is getting worse and worse and worse. They cannot, Elizabeth, they cannot get beyond the fact that Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016.
To see the FBN transcript from June 2, click “expand.”
FBN’s Evening Edit
June 2, 2020
6:26 p.m. EasternELIZABETH MACDONALD: Okay. Let's talk now about social media bias, about how Americans are not getting information on social media. Facebook, now rocked by internal turmoil. Workers there staging a virtual walk out, taking the day off from doing their jobs. Why? Because they're angry that CEO Mark Zuckerberg decided not to censor posts from President Donald Trump. Now this, leaked audio obtained by The Verge, that is a media outlet, from a Facebook company meeting on Friday shows Mark Zuckerberg saying Facebook might review its policies around the discussion of the government's use of force. Welcome Brent Bozell. Media research center founder and president. We love having you on the show, Brent. When you saw this story, what was your reaction to it?
BRENT BOZELL: Well, I think it puts things in the perspective dealing with Facebook and other social media sites these days. Look, here's — here reality. The — the protests aren't about the fact that cops have been killed, cops have been beaten, cops are being shot at. Innocent people are being beaten within an inch of their lives all over the country. There is lawlessness. They're not complaining about that. They're complaining about a tweet about it President of the United States and they want him censored. At the same time, we looked at this in March. There were 119 different Antifa outlets that were being allowed on Facebook. That's okay, but the President of the United States? No, no, because they don't like a twit of his — a post of his. Mark Zuckerberg is right. He’s got to be right because if he knows if he gives in to these social media brown shirts, then the Facebook platform is kaput, because everyone will know there is not that much difference between their rhetoric and the rhetoric that is going on in the streets right now.
MACDONALD: Your reaction to this side of the debate, that again, Twitter for the first time, affixed a fact check label to multiple Trump tweets — President Trump tweets about mail-in ballots, putting a warning label on a tweet from the President’s in which he tweeted when the looting starts the shooting starts. Facebook lets those identical posts stand on the site. You know, the pushback the president has a powerful bully pulpit, his rhetoric is on the margin and controversial, critics saying inciting some of the violence. Take on that side of the debate. What would be your reaction to that?
BOZELL: Well you have every right to be controversial. You have every right to have insightful rhetoric that doesn't incite violence. I don't think the President was inciting violence. You do have the --- the inciting of violence on the other side. Look, Facebook is not — Mark Zuckerberg is saying the right things but Facebook isn't. Look, they brought in an oversight committee. The oversight committee consists of people, the oversight people are, were condemning Trump before all of this. There is one who publicly called for him to be censored from social media, and they are overseeing free speech at Facebook, so that’s where it is going. Look they're all playing off of each other. It is getting worse and worse and worse. They cannot, Elizabeth, they cannot get beyond the fact that Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, and they blame themselves for having allowed him to do that.
MACDONALD: Yeah.
BOZELL: And, in a sense, that's right.
MACDONALD: Brent, it feels like —
BOZELL: I'm sorry, Elizabeth. Let me clarify that.
MACDONALD: What?
BOZELL: I just wanted to clarify one very quick thing. I don't mean they were right in that, they have a grievance. It — that they are right that Donald Trump won the presidency in large measure because he was able to communicate on social media and they want to make sure this time around that he doesn't have that right.
MACDONALD: Listen, nine people are now dead. Seven cops shot at last night. Law enforcement is — is faced with a barrage of attacks. Is — are social media talking about that? Because it feels like, you know, we've fallen through the looking glass and we're on the other side of the mirror, if you bring up those attacks somehow you’re racist if you talk about it. We had Gianno Caldwell saying I pushed back on it. He’s being called racist for saying stop looting, stop rioting, you're hurting minority communities, you’re torching minority owned businesses. Now he’s getting attacked. Your reaction to that?
BOZELL: I repeat. 119 antifa organizations are allowed to communicate on Facebook. When you do that, you're aiding and abetting what is going in the streets.
MACDONALD: Brent Bozell, great to have you on. Thank you so, much sir.
BOZELL: Thank you, Elizabeth.
MACDONALD: Come back soon.
BOZELL: Thank you.
