The House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to give Mark Zuckerberg a public drubbing on Wednesday morning, sticking up for America and sticking it to the reckless, feckless CEO of a giant digital monopolist who has distorted our discourse to sell us soap and only grudgingly feigned surprise when he was informed that his machine had also been used in an attempt to win an election by trickery.
But who are these brave warriors for the truth? They are the massive beneficiaries of Facebook's lobbying largesse, who owe their campaign funding to Mark Zuckerberg and his army of influence peddlers. As a body, nine members of the House Commerce committee have received more Facebook money than any other committee in Congress.
In all, the committee members are in hock to Zuck for $381,000; other committee who've evinced an interest in holding Facebook hearings aren't far behind: the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee got $369,000 from Facebook, and their peers on the Senate Judiciary Committee (who want to hold joint hearings with Commerce) raked in $235,000.
Of the 55 members on the Energy and Commerce Committee this year, all but nine have received Facebook contributions in the past decade. The average Republican got $6,800, while the average Democrat got $6,750.Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., received $27,000, while Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top-ranking Democrat, got $7,000.
Facebook a big contributor to the committees in Congress that will question Mark Zuckerberg [Herb Jackson/USA Today]
(Image: Brian Solis, CC-BY)
