Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center and its president, Brent Bozell, are close friends of right-wing radio host Mark Levin -- to the point that its "news" division, CNSNews.com, is essentially his (paid?) PR agent -- so it's been giving him space to whine about how he's being "censored" by Twitter and Facebook. Alex Schemmel gave him space agan in a Nov. 19 post:
Mark Levin, the host of Fox’s Life Liberty & Levin, has had enough social media censorship. After getting throttled yet again by Facebook, Levin has said he will “probably” be leaving the platform “by the end of the year.”
For the third time since October, Levin received a notification from Facebook indicating the social media giant reduced the reach of his page and levied other restrictions against it for repeatedly sharing what it considers false news. “Your page has reduced distribution and other restrictions because of repeated sharing of false news,” Facebook said in a notification, according to a screenshot from Levin. “People will also be able to see if a Page has a history of sharing false news,” the notification added.
“I've been restricted and censored on Facebook. Please make sure you transition to Parler ASAP as I will be leaving Facebook probably by the end of the year,” Levin said on Twitter.
On the eve of the 2020 presidential election Levin received the same notification from Facebook stating it would be reducing the distribution of his page. Before that, in October, Levin had shared an article labeled by an "independent fact-checker" as "missing context," which led to the same throttling of his page.
"It’s a clear effort at censorship. Every link I post is from a legitimate source," Levin tweeted after receiving the notification from Facebook. "But because so many people are seeing what I’m posting and we’re within weeks of the election it’s clear that Facebook is trying to influence the election’s outcome."
"Legitimate source" or not, Levin has, in fact, been using Twitter and Facebook to spread false information. Notice that Levin doesn't actually deny spreading false information -- which, as we've documented, he has; one of those "legitimate sources" actually did report something false, and Levin apparently never told his readers that the source corrected the false information -- he's just mad he got caught.
Also notice that Schemmel won't admit it either; he claims Levin is being flagged for spreading "what it considers false news." The MRC pulled that dishonest rhetorical trick last time too.
Another thing Schemmel didn't mention: Levin was in the middle of a month-long binge of writing daily posts on Twitter and Facebook about how he was "probably" going to leave Twitter and Facebook at some undetermined time in the future. When finally called out on it, Levin huffily asserted that he would be leaving Facebook at the end of the month. Of course, conservatives using Twitter to vocieferously tell us they're leaving Twitter for Parler while not actually getting around to leaving Twitter is a staple these days.
And, as usual, Schemmel's plug for Parler censored the conflict of interest that a key Parler investor, Rebekah Mercer, is also a key funder of the MRC and on the MRC board of directors.
