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May 23, 2006 It has been quite awhile since I’ve written anything for Useless-Knowledge. However, Google has recently (and “unofficially”) begun to systematically censor and restrict its carrying of articles written by selected so-called “conservative sites”. This reminded me of some similar problems encountered by UK. One has to surmise that with its recent attempts to inveigle China (an extremely repressive and censoring country) into utilizing its services, this might have been expected. It is, nonetheless, repugnant that Google (which is reported to have contributed at least $1MM to the left-wing MoveOn.org site) appears to have decided that the conservative message is ‘too dangerous’ to its and its leaders’ ideologies. Conservatives also seem to be making a strong difference with their sane message—one that is diametrically opposed to the standard lib and leftist talking points. I recall that UK has had problems with its articles no longer being published on Google. Hmmm. Could UK and a few others have been the initial censorship test-cases? During the pre-2004 Presidential election period, I and other UK contributors wrote myriad articles that were pro-Bush and anti-Kerry. There were others on UK who wrote the opposite. However, one has to question if the pro-Bush articles made some small difference in the election. I don’t know. But, I’m beginning to wonder if the liberally-oriented search engines are now convinced that the 2006 and 2008 elections might be “influenced” by conservative thought, as opposed to lib-think. So, it appears that they are working to censor and stop any opposition. Could it be that, as happened to UK, other sites that the major searches consider have any conservative contributors will be banned? Sure looks like it. As an example the website “The New Media Journal”, owned and operated by a friend and colleague Frank Salvato, received a letter from Google advising him that it had received emails (no doubt from leftists) that its articles contained “hate speech” and would “no longer be carried by Google”. The alleged “hate speech” are those articles that contain ideas contrary to the liberal and leftist cause and others that condemned Islamic radicals—the same radical-types that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Google has been an extraordinary and brilliant resource. With its current #1 status amongst search engines, one would think that it could handle divergent thought. So, I find these recent efforts at suppression shocking. But, there you have it. Censorship of opposing thought has officially reached the Internet and it is chilling. But, it is also true. Did you think this was still free-speech America? Well—so did I. ------------ About the author: Sher Zieve is an author, political commentator, Staff Writer and Program Director for The New Media Alliance (www.thenma.org)*. Zieve’s Op/Ed columns are widely carried by multiple Internet Journals and sites and she also writes hard news. Her columns have also appeared in The Oregon Herald, Dallas Times, Boston Star, Massachusetts Sun, Sacramento Sun, in International news publications and on multiple University websites. * “The New Media Alliance is a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets" Email: szieve@zianet.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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