Right-wing commentator Michelle Malkin founded a website called Hot Air. At first, its fans tried to pass it off as a competitor to YouTube that didn't reflexively buckle under to bogus DMCA complaints.
But that's a bunch of, well, hot air, for Hot Air appears to be nothing but another right-wing site like so many others.
Hot Air carries headlines from other sites (including mainstream papers) under the words, "We pick, you click." This is fitting, as Hot Air seems to act as a portal to run only articles that it wants you to see.
One gets the sinking feeling that Google News has become like that as well.
After I exposed the fact that Google News doesn't run stories from left-wing sites but picks up editorials from such explicitly conservative sites as the misnamed National Right to Work Foundation, I've noticed more right-wing Google News favoritism.
Today, my Google News feed included an article from (drum roll, please) Hot Air. This article was some rambling nutball editorial by some nobody using the handle Doctor Zero. The piece advocated privatizing the education system, cited a discredited report from a quarter-century ago, and demanded an unconstitutional federal work-for-less law.
That's Google's idea of "news."
Everyone uses Google for something or other, and Google has quite an innovative business model. But obviously, some right-wing operative is in charge of Google News. So one has to ask: Is there any similar news service that doesn't have a right-wing bias?
Friday, May 22, 2009
Google thinks Malkin is a "news" source!
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No one is selecting stories. It's all done by computers using an algorithm. Besides, Google News does pick up articles from left-wing sites, including the Huffington Post and the kooks at Daily Kos. All you need to do is look at campaign contributions from top Google executives heavily favoring Democrats to end any notion of right-wing bias there.
ReplyDeleteWhen all else fails, blame a computer.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've seen a single article from Huffington Post or Daily Kos yet in my Google News feed.
And when was the last time the Democrats were left-wing?
Here's the fine print from the bottom of news.google.com:
ReplyDelete"The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program.
The time or date displayed reflects when an article was added to or updated in Google News."
Your "news feed" works the same way. There isn't some right-wing conspirator sitting at a desk at Google picking out stories to send you.
The computer determines what stories to send out. It doesn't determine what sites to get stories from.
ReplyDeleteGoogle grabs stories from just about everywhere. Just like the Pail shows up on its blogs search engine.
ReplyDeleteWhere's all the 'Pail articles on Google News then?
ReplyDeleteThe search engine is not Google News.
Tim, keep up the good work. Don't let anyone compare you to Don Quixote fighting the windmills.
ReplyDeleteScheffBoyarDee you did not answer the question...
ReplyDeleteWHERE'S ALL THE PAIL ARTICLES ON GOPgle "NEWS"???
Tim, remember, the People want you to post comments only using your officially recognized ID, which is Bandit.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, you never did answer the question: Where's all the 'Pail articles on Google News then?
ReplyDeleteIt's not on there, I checked. It does come up on blog searches on Google though.
ReplyDeleteSo you're finally admitting it's not on Google News. Finally.
ReplyDeleteOf course it's not. The Pail is hosted by Google's blog service so it can't be confused with a news site.
ReplyDelete