There isn’t a faster way to become a hero to conservative media members in 2025 than to play a modern version of the Prodigal Son who has recognized the error of the ways and come home to the right — pun intended — side of any issue. Mark Zuckerberg is the latest figure to experience this phenomenon. And he won’t be the last.
On Tuesday, the Facebook founder announced that the social media network would move away from dedicated fact-checkers and instead have users do the honors, similar to the Community Notes strategy implemented by the X social media platform.
I don’t necessarily have a strong opinion on the decision. Do I think fact-checkers are good? Yeah. Do I understand that fact-checkers — like every other human being — are biased? Also yeah. Would I advise against getting rid of them in favor of the average user? No, but I don’t run a billion-dollar company.
My issue is with the reaction to the decision by conservative media members. Turn on Fox News, your local news/talk station, or a national show in the format on Tuesday and you would believe that Mark Zuckerberg had become an honorary member of The Heritage Foundation.
After years of being near the top of the Public Enemy list from conservative media members, the idea that Mark Zuckerberg deciding that it would be easier to share verifiably false information on the social media platform he owns is what takes him off the list and into the good graces of conservative news/talk radio and television hosts? Seriously?
There’s only one problem with this line of thinking: Mark Zuckerberg didn’t make this decision because he had a change of heart. He didn’t suddenly recognize the error of his ways. This is a business decision. He’s worried about repercussions. That’s it. It isn’t because he now believes in free speech. It isn’t because he had his mind changed by the conservative point of view. It’s because he likes money. The end.
And that’s a perfectly fine thing to like! We all like money! But some of us also like to have character, integrity, and principles.
For the political party, and its media members, to constantly beat the drum about how they are more moral and ethical than the other side, they sure do love making heroes out of unprincipled people.
Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Russell Brand, and more have all become conservative idols in recent years because they have supposedly seen the error of their ways and have joined the conservative cause. And instead of questioning the motives of these people, that side of the political aisle has simply welcomed them with open arms.
The idea that you could spend years trashing someone — like Mark Zuckerberg — and reverse course over one decision shows how ridiculous the entire news media ecosystem has become.
To be fair, some hosts were able to recognize that it’s a wholly unprincipled decision by Zuckerberg. They deserve to be commended for their stances to their audiences. Because so many hosts now believe they simply need to feed their audience what they want to hear, instead of the opposite.
Conservative media has taken on a collective unity that anyone who agrees with us is correct and deserves praise, and anyone who disagrees with us is the biggest idiot to ever walk the face of the Earth.
In essence, Facebook announced on Tuesday that we’re too damned divided to even agree on what facts are anymore. That isn’t something worth celebrating. It should be shouted down by anyone and everyone.
In the 2004 book “The Seven Basic Plots”, author Christopher Booker shares that every single story falls into — as you might have guessed by the title — seven basic plots. And conservative media members have somehow fallen in love with the “Rebirth” plot. Where they denigrate those on the other side, and then welcome them home to the conservative side of the culture war, political opinion, or us versus them battle that seemingly consumes every single topic.
Instead, judge people by the content of their character. Buck the trend of simply agreeing or disagreeing with someone because of their political beliefs or the letter next to their name.
Mark Zuckerberg isn’t a conservative. The Facebook founder isn’t a free speech champion. He’s an unprincipled businessman who only cares about two things: himself and money. If that makes him someone worthy of praise in conservative media circles, it says as much about that ecosystem as it does about Zuckerberg.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
