Patrick Walker

In a short time Facebook Watch has come a long way. Rarely a week goes by without its parent, Facebook, attracting negative publicity for allegations that someone, somewhere is using the social media behemoth for nefarious purposes, with or without the possible involvement of the Russian state.

By contrast, the video-on-demand service Facebook Watch appears to be immune to such criticism. One of its first scripted shows, the 10-part Sorry for Your Loss, starring Elizabeth Olsen, won the kind of reviews that most commissioners would die for.

Robinson, a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, argued for “impartiality as a legal requirement for television news”. Without it, as in the US where “right wingers watch Fox News and liberals watch MSNBC”, he continued, “there are no shared facts. Good public policy decision-making requires shared facts.”

“What Facebook does, and what separate news channels for different opinions do, is give people the possibility to have their own facts,” added Robinson, a former political editor at both ITV News and the BBC.