Facebook Puts New York Times Veteran In Charge of Stopping ‘Fake News’

By Anti-Media Staff

On April 10, Anti-Media published an article titled “Google Putting CNN, Washington Post, NYT in Charge of Fact-Checking News.”

The title says it all. Through its new Fact Check feature on news stories, Google has put the job of informing the citizenry of what’s true and what’s false — on Google searches, at least — squarely in the hands of the corporate media.

Now, it’s seeming more and more that in the future, Facebook will be relegating its share of the fight against so-called fake news to corporate media outlets as well.

From a Business Insider report on Tuesday:

“Facebook has appointed a veteran of The New York Times to lead its news products division, which is responsible for stopping the spread of fake news and helping publishers make money.”

That veteran, Alex Hardiman, held a half-dozen positions during her decade-long stint at the Times. She left as vice president of news products.

It’s all part of the Facebook Journalism Project, announced in January after the social media giant took heat during the election over its refusal to take responsibility for the content it propagates.

That announcement came just a few days after the company revealed it was tapping former CNN and NBC anchor Campbell Brown as its head of news partnerships.

Brown said her new role would be to “help news organizations and journalists work more closely and more effectively with Facebook” and to “help them understand how Facebook can expand the reach of their journalism, and contribute value to their businesses.”

Appropriately enough, in a Facebook post on Monday, Hardiman described what her duties will be in the newly-created position:

“We will spend time building better products and tools for journalists, working hand-in-hand with Campbell Brown and her team to strengthen the relationship and value exchange between Facebook and news providers. We will also partner with teams in Facebook to continue curbing the spread of false news.”

This article was originally published at The AntiMedia.