Facebook Denies Anti- Conservative Bias; ESPN Dragging Down Disney.
ROMANS: Facebook on the defensive this morning with a direct denial that its trending topics are politically biased. An anonymous former employee first made this allegation, saying he saw Facebook editors suppress conservative-leaning stories. Now, Facebook admits the list is filtered, but only to a point. Joining us to discuss is senior media correspondent, host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES", Brian Stelter. Brian, what's going on here?</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Well, we all think when we hear about trending stories that it's all just decided by a computer algorithm. That when you see that Facebook trending stories box in the right-hand corner of the Facebook homepage that is must be a computer that's deciding what's actually getting buzz about, what's actually popular. But in this case, Facebook editors and news curators have a role to play, as well, choosing what's going to show up in the box and what's not. And there's good reasons for that, you know. They take out spam and scams and hoaxes, but this allegation from the tech blog Gizmodo, according to this anonymous former employee, is sometimes they were also taking out stories about Ted Cruz or about Glenn Beck, or other stores of interest to conservative readers. Now, Facebook has pretty strongly denied this but it's become a political football now. And we heard yesterday from Sen. John Thune, from South Dakota, asking a long list of questions to Mark Zuckerberg about it. I think they even put part of his statement on screen. What he says here is "Any attempt by a neutral and inclusive social media platform to censor or manipulate political discussion is an abuse of trust and inconsistent with the values of an open Internet." Now, he's not saying he did this for sure, but he's asking a lot of questions about it. I think in this election season, in particular, this is a very hot topic.</s>ROMANS: Right. Well, it's interesting because Donald Trump has criticized Mark Zuckerberg on his immigration position --</s>STELTER: Yes, that's right.</s>ROMANS: -- and Mark Zuckerberg has criticized Donald Trump. So does that kind of weigh into this, as well, where you have maybe a media or conservative follower saying look, I mean, these big tech companies are all run by a bunch of liberals.</s>STELTER: This is contributing to that narrative, which has been around for a while, about Facebook and Twitter and other sites. There's no evidence of a top-down systemic bias. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives have said the opposite. They've said we need this site to be appealing to everybody.</s>ROMANS: Right.</s>STELTER: We need everybody's views to be represented to we can have the highest number of users. But, that narrative is out there, that perception is out there, and it could be a problem for Facebook going forward.</s>ROMANS: Does Facebook have to answer to John Thune's questions? Could you have Mark Zuckerberg in front of a hearing on Capitol Hill?</s>STELTER: That's where this gets really interesting because if we were talking about CNN or the "Wall Street Journal" or the "New York Times" being asked a longer list of questions from a senator, being asked to hand over records of editorial decision. I think people would get pretty uncomfortable and they would say what's the first amendment for if not to protect a news organization from the prying eyes of the Senate? However, Facebook is in this strange space and we don't know what it is exactly. It started as a way for kids at Harvard to connect. Now, though, it's one of the biggest publishers in the whole world. It's the way a lot of us get our news. And so, does it have those protections or not? I think it probably does, or it would say it does. But Facebook also says it's going to cooperate and wants to help explain this.</s>ROMANS: I think it's also fascinating, the human hand. To use the verb curig (ph). You know, the human hands behind -- the human brains behind an algorithm --</s>STELTER: Yes.</s>ROMANS: -- that effects what so many people see and read.</s>STELTER: And, ultimately, the newsfeed is incredibly powerful, you know. A billion people see it all the time. WheneverI open up Facebook on my phone I'm seeing that newsfeed and what I see is dependent on what this algorithm thinks I'm going to be interested in. Sometimes that might mean liberal stories, sometimes that mean conservative stories. There's no evidence that Facebook is messing with that in any way, but I think what's happening here is there's just a lot of curiosity about what Facebook does. There's so little that's known about how it does what it does and a story like this reminds us that it's sort of a black box. That Facebook is more opaque than we might realize. And because it's so powerful there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that.</s>ROMANS: All right, Brian Stelter, so nice to see you this morning.</s>STELTER: Thanks.</s>ROMANS: Thanks for getting up early for us. Let's get an EARLY START on your money now. A big stock market rally yesterday locks up with a big jump in oil prices. The Dow's biggest jump since mid-February when stocks began that epic rebound. Investors put aside concerns about disappointing corporate earnings and slowing global growth. The Dow -- look at that gain -- 222 points, more than one percent. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 showing similar gains. As for today, investors are taking a step back. Dow futures off slightly. Stock markets in Europe down. Shares in Asia finishing mixed. Oil down to about $44 a barrel. Watch Disney today, Brian Stelter. The stock is down more than five percent in free market trading. Weakness in its T.V. business rattling investors. ESPN lost more subscribers, revenue fell at its parks and resorts. You know, the movie biz was solid. There were blockbusters here. Think "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", right? Something that got almost no love from analysts on their earnings call with CEO Robert Iger, the only one to talk about those weaknesses. All right, new data this morning shows there are 5.7 million open jobs in the U.S. That's close to a record. It's good news that companies are hiring. We've got all these open positions. It also shows because those positions are open, they're having a hard time finding the right workers. In 2007, before the great recession, there were an average of 4.5 million job openings a month. Last year, there were 5.3 million open positions on average. Now, the job skills gap a major reason why there are still high levels of part-time workers, high levels of underemployment in the U.S. economy. It's why many Americans feel disgruntled about the economy. It's also a big part of why wages have not increased much overall during the economic recovery and it's a really important story on the disgruntled economy front. What are we going to do about skills and education to adapt a workforce? All right, this afternoon a judge will rule on the mental competency of the suspect accused of killing three people last year at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic. Robert Lewis Dear was in court Tuesday attending a hearing to determine whether he is fit to stand trial. Police say when Dear was captured he told them he anticipated being thanked by aborted fetuses at heaven's gate. One of six Baltimore police officers facing charges in the death of Freddie Gray has decided to pass on a jury trial. Officer Edward Nero opting for a bench trial instead, putting his fate in the hands of a judge. Nero is charged with second-degree assault and misconduct in office. His trial is now set to begin on Thursday. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders win big in primary elections overnight. "NEW DAY" picks up our coverage now.</s>TRUMP: I think we're going to have a very good meeting.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We shouldn't just pretend that our party is unified when we know it is not.</s>RUBIO: My differences with Donald are well-documented, and they remain.</s>SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can see no viable path to victory. If that changed we would reconsider things.</s>BIDEN: I feel confident that Hillary will be the nominee.</s>SANDERS: You are looking at the Democratic nominee for president.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The American dream is within reach.</s>SANDERS: We are in this campaign to win.</s>BIDEN: I feel confident she'll be the next president.</s>ROMANS: Major new developments in the investigation into the death of Prince.</s>BERMAN: New details about the doctor who visited Prince before he died.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your new day. It's Wednesday, May 11th, 6:00 in the east. J.B. is also with Alisyn and me this morning, and we have some big winners for you that John's going to tell you about. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders winning last night's primary contest. Sanders beating Hillary Clinton in West Virginia, a state she won eight years ago. Sanders' victory is not going to mean that much in terms of delegate math, but it does prolong the nomination fight and also points to what could happen in matchup between Clinton and Trump, who hammered Clinton in West Virginia, framing her thoughts about coal miners.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, so on the Republican side, Trump was the last man standing and he easily won in West Virginia and Nebraska. Now the focus remains on his big meeting tomorrow with House Speaker Paul Ryan. And, Trump's former rivals, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, back in the spotlight and speaking out. We've got the 2016 race covered the way only CNN can, so let's begin with John Berman, breaking down last night's results and the delegate count. What do you have, John?</s>BERMAN: Good morning, Alisyn. Well, Donald Trump finished first in a one-man race. Look what happened in West Virginia over here. Donald Trump hit 76 percent of the vote there. In Nebraska, he got 61 percent of the vote. Of course, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, they have dropped out. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders with a big win in West Virginia, the only state voting for the Democrats, 15 points. But what does that mean in terms of delegates? Not a heck of a lot. Bernie Sanders, you can see, 16 and Hillary Clinton, 11. That is a net gain of just five despite the big, big win there.