Give credit where credit is due: After being accused of suppressing conservative news, Facebook gave top billing Sunday to a story about a famous athlete targeted for supporting Donald Trump.
The item about retired NFL running back Herschel Walker, who said he has lost speaking engagements for backing the presumptive Republican nominee, led the “trending” box Sunday for several hours on one of the world’s most popular social-media sites.
“Herschel Walker: Ex-Heisman Trophy winner reportedly dropped from engagements for supporting Trump,” the Facebook headline said.
“I have had a lot of people cancel speech engagements with me because of my relationship with Donald,” Mr. Walker said in a video interview with TMZ Sports posted online.
It was the kind of story sympathetic to conservatives that Facebook was accused last month of deliberately hiding from its newsfeed. The Silicon Valley company found itself in the middle of a political firestorm after former news curators told Gizmodo that staffers had removed trending stories on Republicans and conservatives.
Although an internal Facebook investigation found no “systematic” bias, founder Mark Zuckerberg met May 18 with a dozen top conservative leaders, while COO Sheryl Sandberg said last week that Facebook has added a section about avoiding “political bias” to its employee training.
SEE ALSO: Facebook official meets with conservatives in Washington after accusation of liberal bias
Mr. Walker, who appeared on Mr. Trump’s reality-television show “The Apprentice” in 2009, defended the real-estate mogul in the interview.
“First of all, I’ve known Donald before he became ’The Donald,’ and Donald is not a racist. I hate to tell you, just because you build a wall doesn’t mean you’re a racist,” said Mr. Walker, who played for the USFL and NFL after starring at the University of Georgia.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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