In recent months, Ingraham has likened Planned Parenthood to the KKK and “butchers,” called for the return of “Operation Wetback” to deport migrants, and claimed immigration is pushing "Western civilization" toward "tipping over a cliff.” That’s what Google is now sponsoring.
The irony of Google's outreach to Fox News in April? It came during the same month when the company was "pilloried" by congressional Republicans "over allegations they censor conservative users and content online, threatening federal regulation in response to claims that Democrats long have described as a hoax and a distraction."
Conservatives activists complain so loudly about phantom fouls of "liberal bias" via congressional hearings, presidential tweets, relentless messaging from Fox News, and hardball legal action, that tech companies now think twice about even appearing to offend Republicans. Those same Republicans realize that Google, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube represent the most important players in news dissemination today. So they’ve shifted their focus and started using the same playbook that they used on newspapers and television news for years, which consists of raising loud, bogus claims of "bias" and striking fear into the executives who run those companies.
"For decades, Republicans have bashed the supposedly liberal mainstream media in an effort to work the refs," Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii recently explained. "Now that two-thirds of Americans get their news from social media, Republicans have a new boogeyman to target—big tech." Indeed, in March, Trump accused the industry of harboring "hatred" for a "certain group of people that happen to be in power, that happen to have won the election." Added GOP Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, “Facebook, Google and Twitter are pushing a left-wing social agenda while marshaling their marketing power to shut conservative voices out of the marketplace."
The claim is utterly bogus, since conservative voices are among the loudest and most popular on Twitter and Facebook, but conservatives now completely buy into the mythology. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are much more likely to accuse social media networks of censoring political speech than Democrats are, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll. Among conservatives, 85 percent believe it is likely that social media companies engage in partisan, restrictive behavior.
In response to the public hectoring, tech and social media companies are attempting to curry favor with conservatives, trying to prove that they're not really enemies of the GOP. Last summer, Facebook and Twitter executives scheduled hush-hush meetings and dinners with members of the conservative media elite as part of a feel-good outreach tour.
It's one thing for beleaguered tech companies to try to make nice with dishonest conservatives. It's something else entirely for Google to be putting money directly into Fox News's pocket.
Eric Boehlert is a veteran progressive writer and media analyst, formerly with Media Matters and Salon. He is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush and Bloggers on the Bus. You can follow him on Twitter @EricBoehlert.
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