Is GOOGLE part of the Right Wing Conspiracy?

[Vinnie From Indy]

Do a news search on the keyword "guckert" or "gannon" AND then sort by date. I have noticed that they almost always include more story references to right wing web sites like CybercastNewsService or some other right wing publisher. It seems to me that they always do this whenever there is a breaking story that might damage the boy king. Also, don't forget that Google IS ALREADY CENSORING news results in China to prevent critical stories of the Beijing government from appearing in news search results. Are they manipulating their American news search as well?

[arcos]

1. During the campaign, 98% of Google's money went to Democrats... nt

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. That may be true but that doesn't mean the results are not being

manipulated.

[arcos]

7. I have yet to see evidence of manipulation...

They use algorithms that render weird results sometimes.

[charlie]

8. They're not

You can see the times the articles were spotted by the spiders. You've checked at a time when Cybercast News was especially prolific.

[Mz Pip]

2. Google's

political contributions went to the Democrats. I doubt they are "censoring" the news to protect Bush.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[imenja]

3. yeah, that right wing plot to make public digital library collections

is clearly fascist. :tinfoilhat:

Their results are sorted by the highest number of hits and whoever pays them for prominent placement.

[charlie]

5. Only ads are positioned for pay on Google

Not the search results.

[imenja]

9. I wonder though

why the same sites appear over and over again. Have you noticed if you enter in a keyword of a product you are interesting in buying, hundreds of different sites turn up on google that all link to the same vendor, whether Amazon, Ebay, or some other big business? What's that about?

[charlie]

12. They're gaming the results

It's a neverending war of attrition. Google crafts its algorithms for good results, sites figure ways to take advantage of Google's search criteria, Google makes tweaks to weed out the cheaters, sites readjust their tactics for prominent placement, and on and on...

[Rican1]

6. I just googled Gannon and 3 of the first 5 results were

critical of him. Not bad. I don't know if Google is censoring stuff here. It could just be that there is just not enough media being critical of the Bush administration

[skids]

10. It could just be something about the servers.

Like the GOP may have an organized network of servers where they all copy each other's pages, so they have more URLs for Google to find.

Or they might use more software that is easier to index (e.g. uses static URLs and not dumb crap like .asp)

I'm not as much a fan of Google as I used to be; they've shot down advertisers for some pretty bland political content and that's not a good thing. But if I had to bet one way or another, the Republicans just did a better job at attracting the spiders than we did. With all that Whitehouse P.R. money trickling through their maze-like money cave system, they can afford to pay a professional spider registration/promotion firm or five.

The news search is sort of a special animal. But if you're interested in the general topic of what does and doesn't show up on Google's main search page, I have some choice words I wrote about that during a fit of frustration here:

http://abrij.org/~bri/rants/deepweb.html

[ticapnews]

11. Ok, I did a search for "Guckert" and sorted by date...

Congress Passes Class-Action Lawsuit Reform
Cybercast News Service, VA - 24 minutes ago
... Full Story. (CNSNews.com) - The Jeff Gannon/James Guckert "fake" reporter/closet homosexual story has been buzzing all over the Internet, in major newspapers ...

Ari Fleischer Tells E&P He Spoke to Gannon/Guckert's Boss
Editor & Publisher - 25 minutes ago
NEW YORK Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was so concerned about Talon News reporter James Guckert's potential ties to the Republican Party ...

John Negroponte Named As National Intelligence Director
Cybercast News Service, VA - 40 minutes ago
... Full Story. (CNSNews.com) - The Jeff Gannon/James Guckert "fake" reporter/closet homosexual story has been buzzing all over the
Internet, in major newspapers ...

Is the Jeff Gannon Story Finally Hitting the Mainstream Media?
Nashua Advocate - 1 hour ago
... The Guardian now says that "as a gay prostitute ... enormous potential for blackmail."

. ...

Bush's Barberini Faun
New York Times - 1 hour ago
... Howard Kurtz reported in The Washington Post yesterday that although Mr. Guckert had denied launching the provocative Web sites - one described him as ...

Council Speaker to Mayor: Drop Suit v. Equal Benefits
Gay City News - 1 hour ago
... Gannon” has resigned as the White House correspondent for the right-wing Talon News agency after it was revealed that his real name is Jim Guckert, he ran ...

John Negroponte Named As National Intelligence Director
Cybercast News Service, VA - 3 hours ago
... Full Story. (CNSNews.com) - The Jeff Gannon/James Guckert "fake" reporter/closet homosexual story has been buzzing all over the Internet, in major newspapers ...

American Enterprise Institute published "Jeff Gannon"
Media Matters for America, DC - 3 hours ago
... Institute (AEI), published a "Short News and Commentary" article by former Talon News White House correspondent Jeff Gannon (aka James Guckert) in its March ...

Guckert/Gannon Calling in Favors
BuzzFlash, IL - 3 hours ago
Well, the Gannon/Guckert affair is becoming more hilarious by the minute as illustrated by Maureen Dowd’s article in the NYT featured on BuzzFlash, "Bush’s ...

The White House Stages Its 'Daily Show'
Infoshop News - 3 hours ago
... "Jeff Gannon's" real name is James D. Guckert. His employer was a Web site called Talon News, staffed mostly by volunteer Republican activists. ...

Group Using Polar Bear to Force Greenhouse Gas Reduction
Cybercast News Service, VA - 3 hours ago
... Full Story. (CNSNews.com) - The Jeff Gannon/James Guckert "fake" reporter/closet homosexual story has been buzzing all over the Internet, in major newspapers ...

HARD JOURNALISM
Raw Story, MA - 3 hours ago
The reporter, who went by the name of Jeff Gannon, is actually named James Guckert, and worked for an organization called Talon News. ...

Will Europe Warm to Bush?
Washington Post - 4 hours ago
... and by that, I mean actual, certified liberals who write opinion columns in the mainstream media -- are turning their attention to the Guckert affair in a big ...

Invasion of the reporter snatchers
ABS CBN News, Philippines - 4 hours ago
By MAUREEN DOWD. WASHINGTON—I am very impressed with James Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon. How often does an enterprising young man, heralded ...

Getting Rid of the Wrong Person at CNN
The Baltimore Chronicle, MD - 4 hours ago
... correspondent called on in press briefings turns out to have been using a nom de plume, “Jeff Gannon.” Under his real name, James D. Guckert, he solicited ...

John Negroponte Named as National Intelligence Director
Cybercast News Service, VA - 5 hours ago
... (CNSNews.com) - The Jeff Gannon/James Guckert "fake" reporter/closet homosexual story has been buzzing all over the Internet, in major newspapers and even in ...

John Negroponte Named as National Intelligence Director
Cybercast News Service, VA - 5 hours ago
... (CNSNews.com) - The Jeff Gannon/James Guckert "fake" reporter/closet homosexual story has been buzzing all over the Internet, in major newspapers and even in ...

Conyers and Slaughter request Homeland Security records on "Jeff ...
YubaNet (satire), CA - 5 hours ago
... Security, Tom Ridge, submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act for release of Homeland Security records relating to James D. Guckert and his ...

Gannon Flap Shows Liberals in Denial
Cybercast News Service, VA - 5 hours ago
... media and Congress. I can't help wondering why the Left got so upset over Jeff Gannon (aka James Guckert) and Talon News. Was the ...

Milbank, Dowd Weigh In on Gannon/Guckert
Editor & Publisher - 6 hours ago
... tells a leading blog there remains reason to believe that, contrary to statements from the White House, ex-reporter James “Jeff Gannon” Guckert, may had a ...

Moonbats Speak Out at the Post that Generated 373 Comments (and ...
Jawa Report - 6 hours ago
... (And by the way, the issue isn't that Gannon/Guckert is gay. No one except the Repugs cares about that. ... Grow up. Jeezus. No one "outed" Gannon/Guckert. ...

"Jeff Gannon's" incredible access
Salon - 6 hours ago
By Eric Boehlert. Feb. 17, 2005 | James Guckert's mysterious career as a White House correspondent for Talon News just took another strange twist. ...

In Wake of "Gannon-Gate," Conservative Journalists Scramble to ...
Swift Report - 11 hours ago
... Gannon—aka James D. Guckert—reportedly secured White House press credentials under a false name and was given access to classified materials. ...

A hireling, a fraud and a prostitute
Mail & Guardian Online (subscription), South Africa - 11 hours ago
... his "sources". His real name, it turned out, is James Dale Guckert. He has no journalistic background whatsoever. His application ...

A hireling, a fraud and a prostitute
Mail & Guardian Online (subscription), South Africa - 12 hours ago
... his "sources". His real name, it turned out, is James Dale Guckert. He has no journalistic background whatsoever. His application ...

Editorial: A Window into the Blogosphere
AlterNet, CA - 12 hours ago
... Without the blogs listed above, and others, it's doubtful we'd know about Jeff Gannon (aka James Guckert), the gay prostitute credentialed by the White House ...

Bush's Barberini Faun
Spiegel Online, Germany - 13 hours ago
... them with ringers. By MAUREEN DOWD. WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 - I am very impressed with James Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon. How often does ...
Direct Quotes

Georgetown Voice (subscription), DC - 14 hours ago
-'Reporter' Jeff Gannon, aka Jeff Guckert, a male escort who changed his name and posed as a favored conservative journalist in the White House. ...

Wanna Be a White House NewsMan? Go GOP!
Austin Chronicle, TX - 14 hours ago
... according to Fairbrother, who says he didn't follow the development of Talon closely and never met Gannon, whose real name is (apparently) James Guckert. ...

Inside Politics
Washington Times, DC - 16 hours ago
... The 20-minute meeting came a week after James D. Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, a former reporter for the conservative Talon News, resigned amid charges that he was ...

http://news.google.com/news?q=Guckert&num=30&hl=en&lr=&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

Granted there are a few questionable stories in there, but I also see some plenty of legit coverage in there as well. It is also getting mentioned in stories that don't necessarily concern "Mangate" which is a sign it is gaining traction in the media.

[LdyGuique]

13. Does questioning everything lead to paranoia?

With the crap that is spewed out by the RW it's all too easy to move into the realm of paranoia and the subsequent move to view just about anything and everything from a conspiracy perspective. However, it is foolish to sucuumb to this mentality. Question everything with an open mind, but don't be too quick to put a label of "RW Conspiracy" onto everything just because it's not quite what one likes.

For example, Google News is based on over 4,500 news sources. These range from anarchist to socialist to state-owned to major media from around the world. All of these are monitored by a "news bot" to obtain via the headlines and time the "latest" news. Many news organizations are very good at constantly updating their headlines or articles, which keeps them very relevant to the algorithm that culls these headlines. RW organizations are particularly adept at gamesmanship; so, it wouldn't be surprising to find them in the top 20 percent on a regular basis.

News is probably the most dynamic and volatile of all data. This why one should use a variety of news services, from Google to Yahoo to RSS Newsreaders. But, I find no evidence that Google skews anything towards RW Media, other than RW Media is a constant presence and is adept at updating and hogging the news headlines.