Republican senator John Thune of South Dakota is upset about a story in Gizmodo claiming that Facebook has been censoring the news in its “trending” topic section, purportedly deleting stories with a conservative bent. So Thune is using the power of his office to demand that Facebook explain itself.
Except that he has no such power.
Sure, he and his committee can waste time and taxpayer dollars looking into whatever they want, but they have no right to tell any organization what kind of content it must provide to the public. Perhaps Thune should take a few minutes reviewing the First Amendment — and then look up the phrase Free Market.
Facebook says it has found no evidence to prove the anonymous allegations but is looking into it. Meanwhile, right-wing outlets are making a big stink out of it — part of their ongoing paranoia about liberal media bias. Of course, to them, any story that doesn’t reference Obama as the antichrist is proof of a left-wing agenda.
Funny, I don’t see Thune investigating the news stories delivered by Fox News or any other outlet that supports him and other Republicans with its editorial decisions. Oh, I forgot — they’re fair and balanced.