Hiding the truth, internet style–and a conservative response.
About the Author: Born in Boston, I lived and worked in the D.C. area for a time, but have spent most of my life in Tennessee, where I graduated from the University of Tennessee. My political philosophy could best be described as eclectic, though mostly right of center. Read more from this authorOkay, never mind the fact that 90% of the time I type “John McCain” into Google, the first thing that comes up is a picture of Barack Obama; today I wanted to find out what the media was saying about Democrats adjourning for the holidays without a vote to lift the offshore drilling ban. So I go to Google news search and what do I find? Article after article explaining how Republicans are obstructing Democrats in their attempts to fix energy problems and how the idea of drilling for more oil is just a political farce designed to grab votes.
And this news is brought to us by such stalwart sources as; MTV, Salon, the banal editorial pages of many tiny newspapers, and, best of all, anti-intellectual, left-leaning blogs.
I finally found a bit of real information in this article by Congressional Quarterly, but by then I was already more concerned about the growth of the disinformation age than I was about an obstructionist, liberal congress. While Nancy Pelosi worries about the few million of us who like to listen to conservative talk radio, free-wheeling Google gets hundreds of millions of hits per day and gets to shape opinion by which sites it pushes to the front of the line.
And then, because I’m a conservative, I snapped out of it. Would I call for a “Fairness Doctrine” for the Internet? Absolutely not. Google may do or not do as it pleases. Yet, what if this situation were reversed? What if every time Nancy Pelosi typed her name into Google the first link that came up was a picture of George Bush? What if she searched for stories on offshore drilling and wasn’t immediately comforted by liberal sites cooing her own thoughts gently back to her? How long would it be before a congressional inquiry was announced? How long would it be before someone offered legislation to create a government body to oversee search engine placement?
Not long. Liberty versus government. That’s the fight.
To sign the petition for The Broadcaster Freedom Act, go here
To sign the Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less. petition, go here
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