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Facebook Co-Founder Scolds Chris Christie Over Gay Marriage Stance
By Kaye Foley
Jan 27, 2013
How
does Chris Hughes, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The New Republic
and Facebook Co-founder, feel about Mark Zuckerberg hosting a fundraiser
for Republican Governor Chris Christie? Hughes joined ABC News in a
web exclusive to discuss viewer questions from Facebook about Christie,
his career successes, The New Republic, and his contributions to
Facebook before the “This Week” roundtable on Sunday.
This week, Hughes launched a redesign of The New Republic, kicking off with a dynamic interview with President Obama. Before ABC News’ Abby Phillip asked Hughes about the sit-down with Obama, she broached the topic of the Christie/ Zuckerberg alliance.
“I,
for one, have a lot of questions about Chris Christie, particularly
because less than a year ago he vetoed a marriage equality bill in the
New Jersey state legislature. Which for me personally, I got married to
my husband last June, [it] was just really personally frustrating. I
mean, there are tens of thousands of couples in New Jersey that can’t
share their love and be recognized under the law because of that
decision. I’m not a single issue voter, and I think most
people aren’t either, but for me personally, it would raise serious
concerns about supporting someone like him.”
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You recently interviewed President Obama for the magazine. What was that like?
“It
was an incredible opportunity. We see our role at the New Republic as
one where we want to ask hard questions of our leaders. Whatever you may
think about President Obama, I think one of the things that is in the
history of the New Republic and the press in general is to hold our
leaders accountable. So we got a chance to go to the Oval Office, Frank
Foer, the editor of the New Republic and I…and have a wide-ranging
conversation about everything from Syria to economic policy to guns and
to football…I hope will give our readers an additional dimension into
what’s going on in the president’s mind as he starts his second term.”
This
week, a new iteration of the New Republic is going to be launched. What
are you going to do to preserve this magazine’s historic mission? And
what can people expect?
“With
the redesigned New Republic, we’re trying to hold on to this hundred
year old tradition of doing deep analysis on politics and culture. But
we’re also trying to broaden that and cover everything from technology
to science to the world of ideas in a way that’s really accessible. In a
way that feels like it invites you in as a reader. I think that in 2013
in order to do that, we have to have a website where you can listen to
our content, where you can engage in social conversations with it, and
where it’s just as easy to read it on your iPhone as it is on your
computer screen. So when we expand the company from where it’s been
historically, it’s about broadening the content that we provide, but
also making sure that it’s as easy as possible to – to not only read it,
but also discuss it.”
At 29, you’ve had all this success. How do you do it all?
“It’s
been a busy, busy few years…One of the key things whether it was with
Facebook or now at the New Republic, is to be surrounded by really
talented people. And right now whether it’s the editor that I have, my
chief operating officer, the people who run the ads team, it’s really an
unparalleled group of people… I wouldn’t be able to do anything,
whether it’s what I’m doing now or a few years ago, without the help of
really smart people around me.”
Do you have any advice for someone who wants to be a young entrepreneur?
“It
really depends on what the field is. If it’s an internet company, one
of the things that’s amazing is that the cost of entry, the cost of
creating something new is very low. So you can learn a few basic skills,
you can become a coder, and the next thing you know you have an app in
the App Store or you have a website up. And in that sphere I think it’s
great to just try it out and experiment…Whether it’s something you do on
the evenings or the weekends…there’s very few limits for innovation. In
other fields of course, it’s a little bit more challenging. Oftentimes
you need more capital investment…you need deeper skills and familiarity.
And in those things, I think really pursuing an education and finding
the human resources, friends and family and experts, that you can rely
on is incredibly important.”
What do you think was your most meaningful contribution to Facebook?
“When
we started Facebook about ten years ago, we were trying to do something
pretty simple. Enable people to connect to their friends, their family,
and the people that they cared about. What’s amazing is the Facebook
that we started then was incredibly basic. Each person had a profile,
but you had one photo, had your favorite interests, and you didn’t even
have basic things like messaging or commenting or the wall. The Facebook
that exists now is leaps and bounds ahead of what we did then…I really
enjoyed working on…the initial photos feature, which enabled people to
tag their friends, which seems like second nature now, but was new on
the internet then.”
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