'*FACEBOOK'S*' EMERGENT FLAME-THROWER '

IT WAS another terrible day for Facebook and the company had dispatched Campbell Brown, its  head of news partnership to do some damage control.

In mid-March, Ms. Brown took the stage at conference in New York about the future of media industry. In front of a room full of editors and advertising executives, she immediately faced a question about Facebook's latest scandal:

The  company had sent a letter to Guardian threatening lawsuit if the newspaper published a report on improper harvesting by the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica of the data of millions of social network's users.

''If it were me, I would probably not threatened to sue The Guardian,'' Ms. Brown said, with a Southern lilt in her voice and the easy charm of onetime broadcaster anchor.
''Probably not our wisest  move.''

Some in the audience surprised glances at one another. That Ms Brown was so buck Facebook's tightly controlled messaging   -and do it in the middle of a news cycle that kept getting worse   -made some wonder if she had gone rogue.

''Is she on her way out?''  Emily Bell, a professor at the Columbia Journalism School who had been on stage with Ms. Brown, wondered later.

''She is one of the people from  Facebook  who will voice what sounds like a very terrible disappointment.''

Ms. Brown a former CNN and NBC anchor, wasn't out at Facebook. Yet she has long had to grapple with questions about she really has influence at the social network.

Since joining the  Silicon Valley  company in 2017 to repair its frayed relationship with the news media, many have considered her a little more than window dressing. Others see her as an more insidious figure    -a telegenic personality with close ties to the conservative figures who can   Facebook's  outreach  the  veneer of journalistic credibility.

To them, she is an ambassador from dictatorship  , willing to deliver bad news with a smile and some canapes.

No matter of their view of her, almost all question what influence she has at a company where the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has viewed news    -both making it and displaying it as a  headache.

But a year and half into her tenure, Ms. Brown, who has become a school-choice
activist with close ties to  conservative politics after her TV career-

Is emerging as a fiery negotiator for her vision of  Facebook, as a publishing platform- according to interviews with with more than 20 people who work or who regularly interact with her.

Just last  month, Hollywood reporter named Ms. Brown one of this year's  35 most powerful New York  media figures.


The Honor and Serving of the latest Global Operational Research  on Facebook and Social Networks all,  continues to Part 2.  !WOW! thanks author and researcher Nellie Bowles.