Just when the hubbub around whether Facebook was suppressing conservative news started to quiet down, pundit Glenn Beck penned a long essay Thursday afternoon on Medium about his experience at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters.
“Based on our research and my personal experience with Facebook, I believe they are acting in good faith and share some very deep, fundamental principles with people who believe in the principles of liberty and freedom of speech,” Beck wrote.
Beck said he went to Facebook to see if there was a “real issue” of liberals suppressing conservative voices. Despite the headlines “What Disturbed Me About the Facebook Meeting,” he appeared to have forgiven the social media giant for their alleged transgressions, and seemed to think highly of Zuckerberg.
“Mark Zuckerberg really impressed me with his manner, his ability to manage the room, his thoughtfulness, his directness and what seemed to be his earnest desire to ‘connect the world,’” Beck wrote.
But like other attendees, Beck acknowledged that the company had lost the trust of conservatives, which was partially what the company was trying to rectify, for if nothing else, financial reasons.
“To me, the purpose of the meeting from Facebook’s point of view was to acknowledge that if one story and one accusation can bring out the pitchforks, the more fundamental issue to address is a lack of trust.”
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Commentator Dana Perino, who was also at the meeting, told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that Facebook took the encounter seriously.
“From the mood of the meeting, they definitely don’t think this is a joke,” Perino said. “They did not think that this meeting was just a cover your you know what with the conservatives and placate them. I found them to be pretty genuine and sincere, and they acknowledged that they have a trust problem with a significant portion of their customer base, and that they were trying to figure out a way, at least a first step, to open a dialogue so they can try to fix it in the long run.”
In the same segment, pundit Tucker Carlson told Kelly the reaction of his peers to the meeting varied, “A group of conservatives is as united as the Republican party is right now, which is not very. And so it ran the gamut. You had a couple of people, including some well known people, who basically kind of sucked up … and you had other people who asked substantive questions.”
