Does Google rig the news? Of course it does. If an online reader clicks the Google “News” link, he or she will be treated to a relentless stream of anti-Trump articles some so tangential to anything newsworthy they are laughable.
A reader who filters the search by “Kansas” or “Missouri” will be treated to another string of articles praising the Democratic agenda and attacking the Republican ones. To be sure, the mainstream media enable this selection process by producing reliably slanted stories, but Google accelerates it by ignoring virtually all conservative news sites.
This may be changing, and the Sentinel may be a beneficiary. Thursday night in Indianapolis, Trump addressed the suppression of conservative voices by Twitter, Facebook, and especially Google. “We a nation cannot tolerate political censorship, blacklisting and rigged search results,” said Trump to much applause.”
Today, the news items listed for the nation, for Kansas, and for Missouri seemed less slanted than usual. Stranger still, for the first time we can recall, a Sentinel article made the Google News feed for Kansas City.
The article in question, “Public School Supers Relax, Star Hot on Trail of Priest Who Left KC 42 Years Ago,” did not exactly make the top of the feed, but it made it. Articles above it included some hard-hitting bits of journalism such as “Kansas City man paints fire hydrants properly, hoping to beautify neighborhood” and “Report: Black women’s impact overlooked in KC startup community.”
That said, Google has at least acknowledged the Sentinel exists. The same cannot be said of the Kansas City Star, KCUR, and numerous other media throughout Kansas and Missouri.
The president is using his bully pulpit to make media executives, those at Google most notably, aware of what they refuse to acknowledge even among themselves. “I think Google is really taking advantage of a lot of people,” said the President, and I think that’s a very serious thing, and it’s a very serious charge.” It is a serious thing, and Google is just culprit out of many.
