Newsbusters: Is Google Purging Conservative News Sites?
Newsbusters has a piece on Google News and their continuing exclusion of “conservative” sites: Is Google Purging Conservative News Sites?
To be sure, there have been complaints in the past from conservative bloggers that Google seems to have dubious requirements to be a part of its News Crawl. In February 2005, Michelle Malkin wrote of the difficulties she was having becoming part of Google News. At roughly the same time, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs also complained about not being able to curry Google’s favor.
Yet, in the current instance, what is indeed odd is that some of the supposedly offensive content is still available at Google News even if some of the publishers aren’t. Arlene Peck’s “How Has Islam Enriched Your Life?” is still being promoted by Google News at InfoIsrael.net even though it is no longer linked by Google News to The New Media Journal.
The same is true of Barbara Stock’s “Islam is as Islam Does,” which can still be found via Google News at Renew America. And, Amil Imani’s “Islam: A False Religion” can still be found through Google News at Think and Ask.
As such, the three articles that appalled Google News to an extent that necessitated ties between it and The New Media Journal be severed can still be found at other sites by accessing Google News.
That doesn’t make much sense, does it?
As this section demonstrates, I think the idea that Google News excludes conservative sites, while probably true, is only a small part of the problem. The real pattern is that the people who pick sites to be included in the index of Google News are biased against sites that are known for being critical of Islam.
They definitely do not purge sites from their news index for Islamic supremacism and jihad ideology much more virulent and hateful than you’ll find at any site mentioned in the Newsbusters article. Two quick examples:
Khilafah.com.
Hizballah’s Al-Manar.