Conservative pundit Glenn Beck is seemingly defending Facebook following a Wednesday meeting between CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a group of conservative activists.
In a blog post on his website, Beck expressed an admiration for Facebook, saying representatives were “humble, open, and listened intently to everyone in the room,” but he expressed anger with his fellow conservatives following the meeting, saying the meeting felt like “the Salem Witch Trial.”
“I sat there, looking around the room at ‘our side’ wondering, ‘Who are we?’ Who am I?” Beck wrote. “I want to be very clear – I am not referring to every person in the room. There were probably 25-30 people and a number of them, I believe, felt like I did. But the overall tenor, to me, felt like the Salem Witch Trial: ‘Facebook, you must admit that you are screwing us, because if not, it proves you are screwing us.’”
The Zuckerberg meeting was arranged after Facebook came under fire when a former news curator accused it of suppressing conservative news on its “trending news” section.
Beck said he felt conservatives in the room wanted work quotas for conservative employees and compared it to affirmative action.
“It was like affirmative action for conservatives,” Beck wrote. “When did conservatives start demanding quotas AND diversity training AND less people from Ivy League Colleges?”
While Beck went on in his blog post to slam other participants in the meeting and question when the conservative party turned liberal, it was clear not everyone agreed with his take.
During a talk with Fox and Friends Thursday, FOX News contributor and Daily Caller Editor in Chief Tucker Carlson, who was also present at the meeting, seemed to imply that Beck was sucking up to Facebook employees.
“If everyone has the same background and the same cultural assumptions, it will affect your news coverage,” Carlson said. “They think that’s reasonable. Some of the conservatives asked tough questions and others sucked up basically.”
“Like who?” Steve Doocy asked.
“You know, well-known talk show hosts that would be asking tough questions,” Carlson said.
