View this email in your browser.

Share it on Facebook or Twitter.

Subscribe here.

Oliver Darcy here. Chris Hayes is calling on Trump to resign from office, BuzzFeed News has fired a reporter, Matt Drudge is continuing to pummel the Trump White House, Mike Pence is getting called out for lying at the coronavirus task force briefing, Fox News spent part of the day hyping a bogus story about Joe Biden, and more. But first...

Facebook's ad crisis

Facebook is facing an unprecedented advertising crisis with no end in sight. Throughout the week, companies like Eddie Bauer and Ben & Jerry's announced they would pause advertising on the platform, protesting the company for allowing hateful speech, disinformation, and conspiracy theories to flourish.

But in the past 24 hours, the situation has significantly intensified. Now, some of the biggest and most iconic brands in the world are also joining the protest. Verizon, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Hershey's, and Levi Strauss have all announced in the past 24 hours that they are abandoning Facebook for some time. The decisions, Brian Fung wrote Friday, illustrate "how quickly an ad boycott that began with socially conscious lifestyle brands, such as The North Face and Patagonia, has spread to some of the world's largest corporations."

The announcements from Coca-Cola, Hershey's, and Levi Strauss came after Mark Zuckerberg announced in a live-stream some new steps that the platform would be taking to curb hate and misinformation. In other words, the new actions outlined by Zuckerberg have failed to stop the bleeding — companies are demanding more. 

So what happens next? How much longer will this continue? Will more major companies continue to walk away from Facebook in the coming days? And will it matter? Will Facebook take further action if additional corporations pull their $$$ from the platform? As Donie O'Sullivan tweeted, "Is today a sea change in the power and influence and $ of social media. Or is this a fad that’ll fizzle?"

What the companies are saying

Announcing the move in WSJ to boycott Facebook (and Twitter), Unilever was blunt: “Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society." That's quite a remarkable statement from an industry giant.

And other companies didn't pull their punches either. Levi Strauss said, "We believe this inaction fuels racism and violence and also has the potential to threaten our democracy and the integrity of our elections." And Hershey's added, "We do not believe that Facebook is effectively managing violent and divisive speech on their platform. Despite repeated assertions by Facebook to take action, we have not seen meaningful change."

What Zuck is saying

In a brief live-stream and a subsequent blog post, Zuckerberg said he wanted to "share some new policies to connect people with authoritative information about voting, crack down on voter suppression, and fight hate speech." Zuckerberg said that Facebook will affix labels to all posts on the site that discuss voting. And the Facebook chief said the company would implement a "higher standard for hateful content" in ads.

Specifically, Zuckerberg wrote, "We're expanding our ads policy to prohibit claims that people from a specific race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity or immigration status are a threat to the physical safety, health or survival of others. We're also expanding our policies to better protect immigrants, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from ads suggesting these groups are inferior or expressing contempt, dismissal or disgust directed at them."

Finally, Zuckerberg seemed to reverse his previous position on a key type of action. He said that Facebook will begin labeling content that violates its standards but which it would normally leave up because of newsworthiness. "We'll allow people to share this content to condemn it, just like we do with other problematic content, because this is an important part of how we discuss what's acceptable in our society -- but we'll add a prompt to tell people that the content they're sharing may violate our policies," Zuckerberg explained.

As WSJ's Suzanne Vranica and Deepa Seetharaman noted, however, "Facebook has said it doesn’t make policy decisions in response to revenue pressure, and a spokesman said the changes were a followup to Mr. Zuckerberg’s previous commitment to prepare for coming elections."

 

But is it actual progress?

Donie O'Sullivan emails: Coverage of these announcements can sometimes give the perception of progress – but Facebook has been making these kind of announcements literally for years now. Yet, major companies decided today that it simply hasn't been enough.

Color of Change was also not satisfied with Zuckerberg's announcement. The organization put out a statement that outlined its recommended steps for Facebook, saying, "If Facebook was serious, Mark would have finally announced the following obvious but long-rejected steps. These ten steps will not be enough to address all of Facebook’s problems, but they would be a start."

 

>> Joe Scarborough's reaction: "This is a weak move by a man who made $85 billion profiting off of hate, conspiracy theories, and anti-democratic posts..."

 

 

Is the boycott actually hurting Facebook's business?

 

While the ad boycott is causing a major public relations headache for Facebook, it's worth asking how much impact it's actually having on the company's business. Brian Fung noted in his story that the 100 highest-spending advertisers account for $4.2 billion in spending last year. That's about 6% of the company's ad revenue.

 

So where is Facebook earning the bulk of its profit? "Much of the rest of Facebook's ad revenue comes from small and medium-sized businesses, ad executives say," Fung explained. "It would likely take tens of thousands of them, acting over a significant period of time, to put a big dent in Facebook's bottom line."

PR stunts?

Reacting to all the news, The Verge's Casey Newton tweeted, "Very cynical take: ad budgets are shrinking already during the pandemic. Why not get some applause for it?" Newton raises a fair point. Faced with shrinking ad budgets, companies pulling back from Facebook are accomplishing two things at once: cutting costs and getting a wave of positive PR for taking a stand.

 

>> Snopes' Vinny Green tweeted: "The CMOs of the brands leaving Facebook Ads should immediately tell their staff to start discovering meaningful ways to buy ads directly from credible publishers. Snopes reaches over 30M visitors monthly. We employ over 20 full-time, incredibly dedicated people in the fight against misinformation. Directing your ad spend to support publishers like us would be transformative for our mission. You can make a huge difference!"

Enforcement is key

As Hershey's said in its announcement that it'd pull adds, Facebook (and other social media companies) have promised for years to take action against hate and misinformation. These companies have policies that would allow them to rein in some of this content. And yet, such speech continues to thrive on the platforms. NYT's Mike Isaac put it this way: "Policies mean little until they’re enforced, and that track record is pretty spotty."

The #3 post on Facebook Friday

Looking under the hood and seeing what goes viral on Facebook on any given day is almost always an unsettling experience. Those who do so will see that misinformation runs rampant on the platform — and it's often coming from verified Facebook pages. Take a look at the third-most viral post from Friday.

 

NYT's Kevin Roose pointed out the post, with more than 200,000 shares, depicts a photo of "a Vietnam War memorial vandalized by BLM protesters." The problem? "The photo," Roose tweeted, "is from 2016, the vandals weren't BLM-affiliated, and it was debunked by a fact-checker weeks ago." The post eventually had a fact-checking label applied to it, and it appeared later to have been removed, but a Facebook spokesperson told me that the company did not take it down...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

The VP's lies

 

After more than two months without a WH coronavirus task force briefing, Mike Pence walked out before reporters with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx to discuss the outbreak and answer questions from reporters. As Peter Alexander pointed out, "More than 70K Americans have died of COVID-19 since the last White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing."

But the picture Pence painted for the nation was not one consistent with the facts. "Pence wrongly claimed all 50 states are moving forward with reopening (several have paused or scaled back) and said he doesn’t want Americans to think the U.S. is where it was 2 months ago even though the nation reported a record total of cases yesterday," Kaitlan Collins pointed out. After the briefing, Dr. Sanjay Gupta remarked, "Despite what you heard, we are in the middle of a public health disaster." And Jake Tapper called out the WH for peddling "lies," noting it was "mind boggling" to so brazenly deceive when the facts are quite clear...

 

>> Nicholas Kristof tweeted: "When Mike Pence responds to the US hitting a new record in coronavirus cases by claiming to find that it's actually 'very encouraging news,' reflecting 'great success,' I'm reminded of past reporting trips...in North Korea...."

Pence leaves briefing after being grilled by Paula Reid

The briefing ended when CBS News' Paula Reid grilled the VP on the hypocrisy of the WH's leadership. "It really does sound like you're saying, 'Do as we say, not as we do,'" Reid told Pence. "You're telling people to listen to local officials, but in Tulsa you defied local health officials...How can you say that the campaign is not part of the problem?"

 

Pence didn't have an answer to the simple -- yet sharp -- question, responding only by saying that Americans have a Constitutional right to freely assemble. He then ended the briefing (even though he had only taken a handful of questions) and left the stage without saying when the task force would brief the nation again...

 

 

Drudge's brutal banner headlines

Influential conservative news aggregator Matt Drudge continues to hammer Trump, and the headlines featured Friday were particularly brutal. In the banner headlines, Drudge took the White House to task for its response to the coronavirus. And in several headlines under the banner, Drudge highlighted articles criticizing the President's general tone and chances at re-election. 

 

>> Drudge's turn on Trump is irritating pro-Trump personalties in right-wing media. Mark Levin, for instance, tweeted Friday, "Drudge surrendered to Big Media long ago. Just another Democrat Party organ. Use more reliable news aggregators..."

WEEKEND PLANNER

The VP travels to Dallas while Trump stays in DC...

 

Sunday morning on CNN: Nikole Hannah-Jones on "Inside Politics," John Bolton on "State of the Union," and António Guterres on "GPS..."

 

HBO's "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" premieres Sunday night... Scroll down for Brian Lowry's review...

The "Reliable Sources" guest list

Brian Stelter writes: On Sunday I will interview Bill Moyers, who recently wrote that "Democracy in America has been a series of narrow escapes. We may be running out of luck, and no one is coming to save us. For that, we have only ourselves." We will talk about that... And I'll also be joined by Kirsten Powers, David Zurawik, Susan Glasser (who wrote this about Trump's "Hannity bunker"), Jake Tapper, and Joan Lunden... See you Sunday at 11am ET!

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

 -- Will Sommer reports that a complaint from the SEC "provided some clear breadcrumbs leading back to the Daily Caller as being among the outlets that ran with material paid for by [Jack] Abramoff." The Daily Caller writer in question denied anything untoward happened... (Daily Beast)

 

 -- Despite conservatives making a big deal of jumping to Parler, Zachary Petrizzo notes they are still posting on Twitter... (Mediaite)

 

 -- Parler CEO John Matze appeared on "Your World" Friday afternoon and told Neil Cavuto that he expects liberals will gravitate to his platform, too... We'll see...

 

 -- The Dispatch says it has joined Facebook's fact-checking program... (Twitter)

 

 -- One line from a must-read Alessandra Stanley essay: "America, or a part of it, is living an exhilarating, anything-is-possible moment, one of social protest, forged in rage over the mindless killing of George Floyd, but spreading so widely and powerfully and quickly that even the most sheltered elites are cowed." There's a "but..." (Air Mail)

"Whatever Happened to Joy Reid’s Alleged Hackers and That FBI Investigation?"

That's the question Mediaite's Aidan McLaughlin asked about Reid, who is reportedly poised to land a prime time spot on MSNBC, in a Friday article. "Joy Reid is not alone when it comes to cable news personalities with embarrassing or even offensive old comments," McLaughlin wrote. "Those mistakes can typically be remedied by an apology and a statement of learning and growth."

"The issue here is that Reid insisted, quite forcefully, that she was hacked," McLaughlin pointed out. "Her lawyer said there was an FBI investigation into the alleged hack. That is a serious allegation. Given NBC’s longstanding silence on those two claims, the industry assumption is that the network knows the hacking claim is an invention." McLaughlin said NBC declined comment when he reached out to the company...

 

 

Who will fill her weekend slot?

Several names are being discussed, according to Yashar Ali. Citing three sources, Ali reported that several names are being considered for the role. Those names include Yamiche Alcindor, Zerlina Maxwell, Maya Wiley, Soledad O'Brien, Jonathan Capehart, and Tiffany Cross.

 

>> Ali clarified: "Important to note that doesn't mean that all of those people listed in the tweet above want the role. Just talking about who is being discussed internally at NBC/MSNBC..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

By Kerry Flynn:

  

-- Curbed LA and SF announce they're shutting down their sites in preparation of relaunching under New York Magazine this fall... (Curbed)

 

-- Cathy Erway writes how management in food media must work harder to fix the industry's intrinsic racism.. (Grub Street)

 

-- Lucinda Southern asks publishers about Google's new offering to license news content... (Digiday)

 

-- Rick Porter reports: Just a day after LeBron James and Maverick Carter revealed their new media company SpringHill Co., the duo announced a two-year deal with ABC Studios... (THR)

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

 -- Here's a full list of the winners of the 2020 Daytime Emmy Awards, which were presented virtually Friday evening... (THR)

 

 -- "'The Office' creator Greg Daniels has cut a blackface scene from a 2012 episode, calling the racist trope “unacceptable” even when used as satire..." (Deadline)

 

 -- Alex Trebek and his wife Jean have donated $500,000 to Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission to help fight the homelessness crisis in the Los Angeles area, David Williams reports... (CNN)

Thank you for reading! Shoot me an email with your feedback / tips or connect with me on Twitter. Brian can be reached here. Have a good weekend! 

 

Share this newsletter:

You are receiving this message because you subscribed to CNN's Reliable Sources newsletter.

 

® © 2020 Cable News Network, Inc.
A WarnerMedia Company. All Rights Reserved.

 

Subscribe to Reliable Sources

 

Our mailing address is:
Cable News Network, Inc.
Attention: Privacy Policy Coordinator
One CNN Center, 13 North
Atlanta, GA 30303

unsubscribe from this list