<story><title>Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-21/inside-the-facebook-team-helping-regimes-that-reach-out-and-crack-down</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fortythirteen</author><text>Imagine if ABC&amp;#x2F;CBS&amp;#x2F;NBC actively went to political parties and sold them on buying their way into the scripts of the top prime-time sitcoms to shape the opinion of viewers.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s essentially what Facebook is doing out in the open.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Steeeve</author><text>Imagine...&lt;p&gt;If somebody like Rush Limbaugh had a nationwide radio show where day by day he created content based on RNC talking points.&lt;p&gt;Or a network like Fox or MSNBC went all in on party loyalty and based all their content on party talking points.&lt;p&gt;Or a media conglomerate like Sinclair or Clear Channel  pushed out political messaging to their affiliates in small markets that had to be aired during prime viewership.&lt;p&gt;oh wait...</text></comment>
<story><title>Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-21/inside-the-facebook-team-helping-regimes-that-reach-out-and-crack-down</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fortythirteen</author><text>Imagine if ABC&amp;#x2F;CBS&amp;#x2F;NBC actively went to political parties and sold them on buying their way into the scripts of the top prime-time sitcoms to shape the opinion of viewers.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s essentially what Facebook is doing out in the open.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>philwelch</author><text>Parks and Rec ran for seven seasons, and its protagonist was a fictionalized Hillary Clinton. The West Wing ran for seven seasons and explicitly featured a Democratic Presidential administration.</text></comment>