The liberal media is building its own web of conspiracy theories about President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. The New York Times seems to think he’s made a deal with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as part of the grand plan.
Times media columnist Ben Smith speculated about a deal that might have been made between Trump and Zuckerberg at a dinner that took place in November 2019. Smith claimed that he had received details from unnamed Facebook and White House officials about the details of that dinner. Of course, Smith qualified his queries, stating, “[I]t’s hard to imagine that anyone — certainly not Mr. Zuckerberg — would be dumb enough to make a secret deal with a president known for keeping neither secrets nor deals.”
The piece painted a dark picture for Facebook: “Democrats hate and distrust [Facebook] because they spread right-wing misinformation and helped elect Donald Trump.” Meanwhile, the conservative problems with Facebook were whitewashed: “Republicans hate and distrust [Facebook] because they’re run by California liberals and delete some right-wing speech.”
Smith wondered what agreement the two reached during that dinner, saying, “Mr. Zuckerberg needs, and appears to be getting, a pass both on angry tweets from the president and the serious threats of lawsuits and regulation that face other big tech companies.”Times tech reporter Cecilia Kang threw in her two cents, asking in a tweet: “[I]t’s clear it’s also playing the short game on Trump. Where does that leave FB w/ a potential Biden 2020 win?”
An early Facebook investor, Roger McNamee, stated in the piece, “Trump needs Facebook’s thumb on the scale to win this election.” And a former Democratic policy communications Facebook employee, Nu Wexler, was quoted as saying, “[C]ompanies should be worried about Democrats as well. The days of just keeping the president happy are over.”
NBC Senior Media Reporter Dylan Byers noted in his daily “Byers Market” newsletter, “Fair to wonder, but Smith doesn't actually have any evidence of a secret deal.”
