CNN was ridiculed and labeled "activists" Wednesday after publishing a story about brands continuing to advertise on Facebook amid a protest launched by a civil-rights group – and a former CNN reporter even blasted the network, saying the piece felt "closer to activism than reporting."
Fox News reports the story, headlined, "These are the big brands that haven't pulled ads from Facebook yet," essentially served as a list of companies still doing business with the tech giant, amid calls for businesses to boycott Facebook advertising for its treatment of hateful or racist content. CNN reporters Brian Fung and Kaya Yurieff penned the story that quickly sparked mockery.
These are the big brands that haven't pulled ads from Facebook yet https://t.co/Nh9BQwX0nO— CNN (@CNN) July 1, 2020
"Even as a steady drumbeat of household names like The North Face (VFC), Pfizer (PFE) and Levi Strauss (LEVI) have joined the pressure campaign over the social network's handling of hate speech and misinformation, the vast majority of Facebook (FB)'s biggest advertisers -- the ones with presumably the most leverage -- have stayed quiet," Fung and Yurieff wrote. "A CNN Business analysis of Facebook's top advertisers, based on data from market research firm Pathmatics, reveals that most of the 100 biggest ad spenders on the platform have not joined the boycott."
CNN then listed many of the companies that have not joined the boycott, prompting significant backlash on social media.
NBC News' Dylan Byers, who used to work as a media reporter for CNN, scolded his former employer. "So this feels closer to activism than reporting," Byers wrote to accompany CNN's tweet promoting the article.
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