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The Regime Media are in mourning, in the wake of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s momentous announcement. Meta platforms are shifting off of fact-checking and censorship and are moving to community notes and more emphasis on free speech. 

The evening newscast reports uniformly opened with the mention of the elimination of fact-checking. Here is ABC’s in its entirety (click “expand” for transcript):

ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT

1/7/24

6:42 PM

DAVID MUIR: This evening, there is news that the parent company of Facebook has now eliminated fact checking on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg recently meeting with President-Elect Trump, and what Facebook will now do instead. Here’s Rebecca Jarvis.

REBECCA JARVIS: Tonight, a seismic shift in strategy. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing Meta will eliminate his third-party fact-checking, a program originally designed to combat misinformation.

MARK ZUCKERBERG: And we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.

JARVIS: The change coming just days before Donald Trump takes office. Zuckerberg acknowledging the move was prompted in part by the election.

ZUCKERBERG: The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.

JARVIS: But Zuckerberg says the change also aligns with his long-held personal views on free speech.

ZUCKERBERG: I believe that people should decide what is credible, not tech companies.

JARVIS: Meta will phase in a community note system, letting users decide which posts are misleading. A model similar to X’s, the platform run by Elon Musk. The move, a kind of reset for Zuckerberg and Facebook, which President-Elect Trump once called a true enemy of the people. Zuckerberg recently traveling to Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump, and just yesterday, Meta adding key Trump ally Dana white, CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, to its board of directors. 

And in fact, David, Mark Zuckerberg and Dana White have recently bonded over their shared passion for mixed martial arts. The President-Elect Trump today said he welcomed the changes from Meta and that the company’s come a long way. David.

MUIR: All right. Rebecca Jarvis reporting. Rebecca, thank you.

ABC’s report was the shortest of the night, but hit all the common notes. Most notably, the double emphasis on the elimination of fact-checkers. That’s the big one for the media. As Erick Erickson notes, the defenestration of the fact-checking grift stands as another lethal blow to an already reeling media.

Both NBC and CBS aired the same quote from President-Elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago press conference suggesting that Zuckerberg acted in order to stave off potential consequences over a continued censorship regime, and unfavorably framing Trump:

DONALD TRUMP: Honestly, I think they have come a long way. Meta. Facebook.

REPORTER: Do you think he’s directly responding to the threats that you have made to him in the past?

TRUMP: Probably.

Where coverage diverges slightly is that CBS’s Kelly O’Grady (formerly of Fox Business) brought on an analyst to discuss the business side of Zuckerberg’s decision.

KELLY O’GRADY: Wedbush Securities’ global head of research Dan Ives says today’s change could be a good business move. 

What does Meta have to gain with this change?

DAN IVES: Well, this could increase advertising. And when you look at the biggest threat here, it’s regulation in the Trump Administration. This is a little sort of waving of the white flag with Trump coming in.

Over at NBC, Hallie Jackson brought in Bret Schaefer of the notoriously pro-censorship Alliance for Securing Democracy, to commiserate:

BRET SCHAFER: Fact-checking is not censorship.

HALLIE JACKSON: What do you see as the Trump factor, if you will, here?

SCHAFER: This is very obviously a political decision.

What none of these reports did was tell you with any detail what changes Meta made. For instance, Meta got rid of pro-censorship Nick Clegg and replaced him with pro-speech Joel Kaplan (formerly of the Bush 43 White House). Meta also opened their algorithms. Among the reported items, Dana White was added to Meta’s board.

This is very obviously a huge deal, and a great day for free speech. In the meantime, we trust and verify that Zuckerberg is going through with implementation of these changes, and we enjoy the media’s ongoing meltdown.

Click “expand” to view the full transcripts of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective newscasts on Tuesday, January 7th, 2025:

CBS EVENING NEWS

1/7/24

6:38 PM

NORAH O’DONNELL: The President-Elect is also praising a decision by Mark Zuckerberg to effectively ditch its fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta platforms. CBS’s Kelly O’Grady tonight looks at what the change means for you.

MARK ZUCKERBERG: It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram. The fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created.

KELLY O’GRADY: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced major changes today, including an end to the platform’s fact-checking program, relying on users instead.

ZUCKERBERG: It means we’re going to catch less bad stuff, while also reducing the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down. 

O’GRADY: So what does this look like? Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, or Threads, you’ll see a similar Community Notes label as you do on X. For example, this Elon Musk post, users added this context. But critics warned removing fact-checkers could breed misinformation. The International Fact-Checking Network, one of the third parties used by Meta, tells CBS “It’s unfortunate that this decision comes in the wake of extreme political pressure.” But some are cheering the move, including President-Elect Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP: Honestly, I think they have come a long way. Meta. Facebook.

REPORTER: Do you think he’s directly responding to the threats that you have made to him in the past?

TRUMP: Probably.

DAN IVES: I think this is really Zuckerberg reading the room.

O’GRADY: Wedbush Securities’ global head of research Dan Ives says today’s change could be a good business move. 

What does Meta have to gain with this change?

IVES: Well, this could increase advertising. And when you look at the biggest threat here, it’s regulation in the Trump Administration. This is a little sort of waving of the white flag with Trump coming in.

O’GRADY: Meta is also addressing censorship concerns by lifting restrictions on topics it deems controversial like immigration And Norah, these changes come on the heels of a broader shift in the tech community. Amazon is licensing a documentary on Melania Trump, and others are donating to the President-Elect’s inauguration fund.

O’DONNELL: Kelly O’Grady. Thank you so much.

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS

1/7/24

6:40 PM

LESTER HOLT: And it’s the shift in the political and the social landscape that prompted the big changes announced today by Facebook parent meta. Our Hallie Jackson explains.

HALLIE JACKSON: New fallout tonight after Meta’s mega move to eliminate traditional fact checking on the world’s biggest social media platform.

MARK ZUCKERBERG: We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes, and too much censorship. (VIDEO SWIPE) The fact checkers have just been too politically biased and they have destroyed more trust than they’ve created. Especially in the U.S.

JACKSON: It’s a significant shift from the fact checking put in place after Donald Trump’s first win. Instead, Meta will now rely on community notes. In other words, user input similar to what Elon Musk’s X platform does, as part of a broader move to loosen up how Meta moderates content. The company will also lift restrictions on hot-button topics like gender identity and immigration, allow more politics into people’s feeds, and move its Trust and Safety team from liberal California to ruby-red Texas. All just days before President-Elect Trump retakes The White House.

ZUCKERBERG: The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.

JACKSON: It‘s a political evolution for Meta. four years after Facebook suspended Mr. Trump’s accounts in the wake of January 6th, and just months after the President-Elect accused Zuckerberg of plotting against him in 2020, calling for life in prison if Zuckerberg did it again. But after Mr. Trump’s win, Zuckerberg travelled to Mar-a-Lago, his company donated $1 million to the Trump inaugural fund, and now close Trump ally and UFC head Dana White is joining Meta’s board. 

DONALD TRUMP: Meta, Facebook. I think they’ve come a long way.

(VIDEO SWIPE)

REPORTER: Do you think he’s directly responding to the threats that you have made to him in the past?

TRUMP: Probably.

JACKSON: Some critics concerned.

BRET SCHAFER: Fact-checking is not censorship.

JACKSON: What do you see as the Trump factor, if you will, here?

SCHAFER: This is very obviously a political decision.

JACKSON: Over the next four years, the Trump administration will set key policy on critical tech topics like antitrust and AI. And as Meta has pushed into the world of artificial intelligence.New tonight. NBC News has found user-generated AI chatbots that seemingly violated Meta’s policies against creating characters based on religious or real-life figures. The NBC News review found some two dozen chatbots ranging from Hitler and Jesus Christ, to Taylor Swift and Captain Jack Sparrow. 

Meta took down those individual accounts after our team reached out, and in a statement says they’re continuously improving their detection measures. Lester.

HOLT: All right. Hallie Jackson, thank you.