Facebook’s Alleged Liberal News Bias Gets Comedy Treatment

By | May 20, 2016

Scalper1 News

Facebook ( FB ) CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with conservative news figures this week to address concerns that editors of the social network’s Trending Topics feature have been suppressing conservative viewpoints. That gave comedians and satirists a great opening to take some shots at Facebook for its alleged liberal bias. “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert slammed Facebook for having misplaced priorities. “Apparently, Facebook censored popular stories about conservative topics from appearing on the trending news section. Folks, I think this is wrong,” Colbert said. “If Facebook is going to censor things, why not get rid of the stuff people really don’t want to see, like your ex’s tropical honeymoon? Or invitations to co-workers’ improv shows?” Satirical news website The Onion presented a fake response from Zuckerberg, who questioned why people are getting their news from Facebook to begin with. “Facebook is a great place to connect with friends and family, but frankly, if you’re on our site for 20 minutes or longer during the day and you’re reading the articles on here as your main connection to what’s actually happening in the world, then I’d say you’re a little mistaken about what this site is actually all about,” fake Zuckerberg said. “I’m happy to show anyone how to get to a regular news site if you need a little help.” Online comic The Joy of Tech also took a jab at the Facebook bias controversy. Plus, the story was material for political cartoonists including Jeff Darcy of Cleveland.com and Rick McKee of the Augusta Chronicle . Amazon, Tesla Also Come In For Some Zingers Facebook’s trending-news hullabaloo isn’t the only tech subject tickling funny bones lately. What follows are recent jokes from late-night comedians Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien and James Corden. Their zingers were directed at Amazon.com ( AMZN ), CBS ( CBS ), Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google, Priceline ( PCLN ), Tesla Motors ( TSLA ), Twitter ( TWTR ) and Uber Technologies. Fallon: Tesla unveiled its new model 3 electric car. And I saw that fans were camping outside Tesla stores to reserve one. Camping out is actually great practice for when their cars run out of power 30 miles from the nearest outlets. Fallon: Amazon Prime just unveiled new buttons you can press to order Doritos, Red Bull, and Trojan condoms. Yeah, Doritos, Red Bull and condoms. Or as that’s called in New Jersey, “A gift basket.” Fallon: The CEO of Priceline just resigned after it was revealed that he had an affair with an employee. As you can imagine, his wife is pretty mad, but on the bright side, at least he knows where to find a good deal on hotels. Fallon: CBS announced that season 33 of “Survivor” will be called “Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen-X.” It’ll start in September, and end 20 minutes later when both teams realize there’s no Wi-Fi. Conan: This week is the 43rd anniversary of the first cellphone call. Historians still don’t know which movie theater it took place in. Conan: Over the weekend, a man broke the world record for “Donkey Kong,” making it through the entire game using up just one life. That’s right — his own. Conan: Google has created several new emojis aimed at empowering women. So congratulations women, you asked for equal pay and you got five new emojis. Corden: The social media platform Twitter just signed a historic deal with the NFL to live stream Thursday Night Football games this coming season. Before this, the only thing Twitter ever live streamed was Kanye West’s meltdowns. Corden: The driverless car thing seems like it’s really catching on lately. In fact, the ride-sharing company Uber has begun testing driverless cars on the streets of Pittsburgh. Finally, Uber found a way to make out-of-work actors even more out of work. Corden: But don’t worry, for all of you who love Uber, the experience isn’t really going to change. To keep in line with Uber’s brand, their driverless cars will be programmed to smell like cologne and also make female passengers really uncomfortable. Scalper1 News

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