Combat Facebook News Today

Throughout all of it, "the times" says facebooks ceo, sheryl sandberg oversaw, quote, an aggressive lobbying campaign to combat facebooks critics, shift public anger toward rival companies, and ward off damaging regulations. facebook employed a republican opposition research firm to discredit activist protesters in part by linking them to liberal financier george soros. it also tapped its business relationships, lobbying a jewish civil rights group to cast some criticism of the company as anti-s...

Shocking? >> its the -- i would say the idea that they are publicly repetant and yet doing all of this stuff in the background. we have new reporting this morning, too. we talked to an ex-employee of this firm that they hired. and he said they have an in-house fake news shop. thats what they call it. its a separate thing called ntk news network that pushes out stuff against the clients -- sorry, for their clients, that sort of models not fake news but stuff that is, you know -- bends the truth a...

And the problem for facebook is that the thing that theyre under assault for is the same thing that makes them so much money. >> i have to ask you -- im sorry. >> its their lifeblood. >> this is a piece you obviously were working on for a long time. what you were working on a long time. whats it like when you hit send? >> it is a good feeling to do good work and talk about it. >> a lot of people responding to your reporting. congratulations. the white house says the president will travel to th...

Can do in a positive way. they can help set an agenda. its smart not to overpromise or do a victory dance. its hard to do a victory dance when you have the senate and -- down a few seats. they are looking to see, how do we get from this election to the next. the senate back and the white house and they are focussed. for all the criticism of pelosi, they ran a very good campaign and are still very focused. >> i think they need to offer an alternative vision of the country or were hearing plenty f...

A media company. they keep defining themselves as a technology company because they dont want to have to deal with the regulatory universe that comes with being regulated as a media company, like making are sure people that advertise on your site are -- have good bona fides. >> there is no basic consumer privacy law in america. none. there is none. you have no protection. you have the protection these companies give you. use google, facebook, they say, heres the deal. this is a privacy we give y...

Opposition research firm to discredit activist protesters in part by linking them to the liberal financier george soros. after this times report was published, facebook announced it was cutting ties with that opposition research firm. nick is one of the reporters on that extraordinary piece. i want to hear all about it, but, first, tell me whats happened since the piece was published. >> theyve done a conference call today with mark zuckerberg and other executives who say mark didnt know about i...

As you know, the links to linking funding, particularly what we call astroturf groups in washington, what people refer to as sort of fake influence groups in washington is sort of a long trope, sort of a long-worn strategy to link this to george soros. you see this many times with far-right groups doing that. the implication is sort of whats not said but the undercurrent is that george soros, who is part of a global leftist, jewish elite, is funding these things. thats a trope thats stirred up q...

With my partner, ali velshi, and all day on twitter. >> give baby o a break, lady. let him get to two weeks old. >> hallie, it is never too soon to start with a good habit. >> thank you, stephanie. and congratulations. we are looking forward to seeing more pictures of baby owen. im hallie jackson in washington. were seeing this seasons first snow and an avalanche of anger from the president of the united states, going after robert mueller, calling the russia investigation a total mess but insi...

Public apology tour in the last year, ms. sandberg has overseen an aggressive lobbying campaign to combat facebooks critics, shift public anger toward rival companies and ward off damaging regulation. facebook employed a republican opposition research firm to des credit activist protest rs in part by linking them to george soros. joining me now, to discuss what is a significant story for you, can you tell me what you found most noteworthy as you were conducting this reporting? >> as you mentione...

Saying so far they dont believe there say connection to mohammed bin salman. and the deputy head of intelligence is not among the 17 names of those sanctioned, even though the saudis, in their statement earlier, said that he was operational, he was an operational mastermind of this killing here. and then the third one thats important, its clear that the saudis and americans are now sort of working in conjunction -- theyre effectively coordinating in terms of charges, punishments, sanctions, to s...