Facebook Detects Covert Campaign to Influence Midterms




The Daily Dive show

Summary: With about three months to go before the midterm elections, Facebook has identified an ongoing political influence campaign on the social media network. Facebook has admitted that it is still early in their investigation so they could not identify who the bad actors were, but it did resemble the activity of Russian interference in 2016. Kyle Cheney, Congressional reporter for Politico joins us for more on how these pages sought to inflame social and political tensions. Next, Sara Fischer, media reporter for Axios joins us to talk about media bias. We know there is left and right bias in politics, but in the mainstream media it can extend beyond that to stories on terrorism, missing minorities, even climate change. A lot of the times decisions in big national newsrooms may be made because of financial pressures or wanting the next big viral story. It might be time to take a closer look at your local news or even podcasts… Finally, an update in the hazing death of Timothy Piazza, the Penn State student who was neglected by his frat brothers and didn’t get medical help until the next morning after falling down 15 feet of stairs. Mike Deak, reporter for the Courier News tells us about Ryan Burke, the “rush chair” who gave Piazza vodka during the hazing ritual and is only getting three months of probation.