Curious about the Google news picks on a candidate.

[madfloridian]

I have noticed that for two days, when I search the Google News section that I get some very right wing sources as the very first picks.....up to 5 or 6. This is searching from the Google news page, not the search engine itself.

For example, yesterday and today the top 7 on a search on "howard dean" gave the Town Hall, National Review Online (Jonah Goldberg), the New York Post, and the Washington Times. Also the American Daily popped up today. Not sure about the American Daily, but it calls itself a conservative source.

In the top picks, there were only those listed first, often several times.

I am going to try it on other Democratic candidates. On the Yahoo search I get a much better selection, more balanced.

:shrug:

[Bombtrack]

1. Is it the NR "please nominate this man" story?

Or was that just the print edition, which probably only has a 99 percent right-wing republican readership, but they WOULD NEVER encourage cross-voting sabotage in a primary, would they?

[madfloridian]

3. Explain, I don't understand.

Do the search, and it is very odd.

[Bombtrack]

5. They don't make the "please nominate this man" cover story available

on the internet apparently. So only people who buy the mag(republicans) are probably going to read it. So basically it's ANOTHER example of the rights attempts to get him, instead of Clark, Edwards, or Kerry, (or even Lieberman) nominated.

And his supporters are either denying the stifling of the democratic process of a parties right to, free-of sabotage, nominate there preferred candidate, or they have no problem with it.

Either way it shows an agregious lack of respect for the party itself

[madfloridian]

9. I want you to explain how Dean supporters could do this!

That is an outrageous statement. I am not savvy enough to sit here and think:
"Oh, my goodness, let me see if I can get Google to put all the nasty articles about Dean first."

You gave the accusation. You explain.

[Bombtrack]

13. do what? I wasn't talking about google

I admit I got off topic a bit, but I was talking about the attitudes of Dean supporters to the clear sabotage the right is doing towards the primary to help him get nominated. The NR article, not the NRO article you referenced, was what I referred to.

[madfloridian]

16. Could you explain NR and NRO. Confused again.

:shrug:

I am glad you really don't think we are capable of such nefarious deeds.

[Bombtrack]

17. national review(magazine), national review online (website)

.

If nefariousness is indifference to sabotage of your parties primary, you're(dean supporters) not off the hook

[madfloridian]

18. That deserves no comment.

.

[Monte Carlo]

2. It might have been google-bombed.

Google bases their search results based on how many links there are 'out there' on the internet to said material. The GOP, for example, could set up hundreds if not thousands of dummy websites that link to these stories about Dean at these reactionary websites, and artificially bubble up negative stories about Dean.

[madfloridian]

4. Here is the link where I searched.

Something has happened for sure, and I think it is important. This is not good if it happens to any candidates. Jonah Goldberg's site should NOT be considered as worthy as others. Where are the left leaning sites?

A few days ago, I could do the same search and get reasonable articles, some good, some not.

This is the news page:
http://news.google.com/

[janx]

6. MF, you're right! TownHall, WorldNutDaily, all of them.

That is strange.

[madfloridian]

7. Yep, what do you think the odds are of that?

Surely not accidental.

[madfloridian]

8. Ok did a search on Clark, none of those sites show? Yet?

Someone tell me how this happens? How can they get their sites, so obviously right wing, front and center on Google?

If it is google bombing, how do they do it? From the sites themselves?

This can happen to any candidate.

[Hawkeye-X]

10. Don't forget Google has dropped many of the liberal newsfeeds

so I wouldn't give Google News a look, and besides, Google is turning into a spyware of its own.

Hawkeye-X

[madfloridian]

11. Because of ownership?

Why did they drop the liberal ones? This is scary. It is only for Dean right now, not the other candidates. If they move ahead, will Google do that to them as well?

Just the last two days.

[SahaleArm]

30. Google dropped Indymedia and rightfully so - It's become freeperville n/t

[madfloridian]

12. Yahoo news on a Dean search.

http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=&p=Howard+dean
Pretty normal, a mix of good and bad in the first picks.

Google has added Dallas Morning News since my last search. Most front page are Town Hall, NY Post, Washington Times, Front Page,and World Net Daily.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&q=%22howard+dean%22&btnG=Search+News

[TeacherCreature]

14. that is weird... what is even weirder

is that anyone would imply that Dean had somehow done this? Just bizarre.

[madfloridian]

15. Yes, and I have had no answer yet.

Did you notice I asked for a response above. What are the odds I will get an answer, do you think?

[NashVegas]

20. Town Hall & Stuff

That'll skew things, yah.

Sunday, AP had a bunch of negative stories on Dean. Anytime a news wire story gets picked up by multiple sources it's going to add to the mix.

Honesty dictates I must point out, at the bottom of the Yahoo page, there's a Dean for America sponsored link, and I can't help but wonder if the Yahoo PTB decided to weed out results from Nes Max, et al. Yeh, there are some negative stories there, but nowhere near what Google has.

[Woodstock]

21. Google accepts sponsored links, too

[Woodstock]

19. Whatever you do, don't click on the links to their articles

That will make them stay up top - they are banking on that with the sensational headlines (like "Howard Dean experiments on children") - even if you're rooting for another candidate, resist the urge to click on these for the good of the party (remember, what happens to him will happen to your pick if he pulls in front/gets the nod.)

Newsmax, Worldnet Daily, Michnews , and Chronwatch (never even heard of the last two until the Dean bashing started)- every time I click on Howard Dean on Google News, these 4 are near the top with tabloid style headlines. I just put "Howard Dean" in and all four were, as usual, there on the first page.

The thing I just don't get - if the masterminds behind these propaganda to the dummies outlets really think Dean is such a pushover to lose vs. Bush, why don't they wait with the propaganda push until he's nominated (if he's nominated)?

And if he gets the nod, they don't have to create propaganda, why not just recycle all the dirt the other Democratic candidates are dishing on him?

[NashVegas]

22. Damage

The thing I just don't get - if the masterminds behind these propaganda to the dummies outlets really think Dean is such a pushover to lose vs. Bush, why don't they wait with the propaganda push until he's nominated (if he's nominated)?

By starting now, they work two-fold. They can say nasty things about Dean now through November, and they can also say Dems are fools for nominating him when everyone knew .. blah blah blah.

[Woodstock]

25. yes but aren't they afraid they will be too effective?

If he's the one the Republicans want to run against, and they put out a blitz of negative propaganda now, he may not be the one - they might succeed in getting enough people to change their minds & not vote for him. He's the front-runner, but by no means a shoe in.

My point is, the Republicans are lying when they say they WANT him to be the one who runs - otherwise, their all out assault on him BEFORE the primary makes no sense.

[janx]

27. Oh yes, they're in full attack mode.

And they're working the media and the Net full time.

[SahaleArm]

31. Just 'Sort it by date' - avoids Google's algorithm n/t

[drfemoe]

23. I get a mix

of local papers and some of the ones you mentioned.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&q=howard+dean

I usually sort google news by 'date' after the search is completed.
http://news.google.com/news?q=howard+dean&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&edition=us&scoring=d
Lots of 'local' news sources there.

[madfloridian]

24. I get more a mix now.

Usually I do get that. Yesterday and today it started with the ultra right wing stuff coming up first and just about only.

How would that happen? Could people linking to Dean articles from those sites do it?

In my mind, that was not accidental and could only have been done by Google itself. Am I wrong? Not that familiar with how search engines work. Very curious now, though.

They can clobber any candidate with this technique.

[Woodstock]

26. I'm not getting a mix at all

What page are you seeing? The majority are whacked out tabloid right wing propaganda sources that even non-brain dead on the other side don't take seriously.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&q=howard+dean

Howard Dean 'finds' Jesus

Howard Dean and His Campaign Gaffes

Hellfire and Howard Dean

Herod Dean

HOWARD DEAN ’ S RELIGIOUS AMEN CORNER SINCERE OR POLITICALLY ...

Howard Dean: The Democrats' death wish

& even the so-called respectable ones are right wing op eds:

For Howard Dean to Win, He'll Have to Beat Nixon

...

[Woodstock]

28. that last one from LA Times just sounded negative

maybe that's why it got put up front. Maybe that's the trick - all the pro-Democrat or neutral sources have to make up negative Democrat bashing titles to get at the top of Google News.

It was actually positive:

For Howard Dean to Win, He'll Have to Beat Nixon

...All Republican presidential candidates since 1968, including George W. Bush, have used the accepted code phrase for anti-civil rights, "states' rights."

That is why there was no contradiction in Bush endorsing states' rights and then, when his election was in doubt, turning to the federal court run by a member of the original team, Chief Justice Rehnquist.

No Democrat since John Kennedy has won a majority of white Southern votes. Dean knows that if he is to run successfully for president he will have to run against Nixon. He knows that if the fight is out in the open, both Nixon and his racist approach are beatable.


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-oe-kurlansky29dec29,1,4444064.story?coll=la-home-politics

[Woodstock]

33. Here's a new one as we speak - PHX News

How is this getting such top billing on Google?

Take a gander at the QUALITY operation this one is - check out their Dean bashing at the bottom of the article, and their devotion to Bush in the poll at the top right of every page.

http://www.phxnews.com/fullstory.php?article=8397

Michnews, ChronWatch, Town Hall, now PHX News...

to add to WorldNetDaily & Newsmax

What's next for Google News, Podunk Jr. High Newsletter?

and whoo hoo, add Slate to the mainstream ones with the negative titles about Dems getting top billing on Google:

"Howard Dean, suicide bomber."

[madfloridian]

29. Back to all ugly again. When you own the media, you own it all.

http://news.google.com/news?num=30&hl=en&edition=us&q=Howard-Dean

Someone do a check on the other candidates. This is very eye-opening.

When you own the media you own the country.

This is the doing of Google. It has to be.

[drfemoe]

32. Links can do it ..

This is how "miserable failure" ended up pointing to *'s website.

George W Bush has been Google bombed.
Web users entering the words "miserable failure" into the popular search engine are directed to the biography of the president on the White House website.

The trick is possible because Google searches more than just the contents of web pages - it also counts how often a site is linked to, and with what words.

Thus, members of an online community can affect the results of Google searches - called "Google bombing" - by linking their sites to a chosen one.

Weblogger Adam Mathes is credited with inventing the practice in 2001, when he used it to link the phrase "talentless hack" to a friend's website. snipped
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3298443.stm
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=google+%22miserable+failure%22

[madfloridian]

34. Ok, explain more.

If they go to the links that are already on Google they can push them to the top? Or they just keep producing more links? I had heard of the google bombing, as folks here were trying to pull it on Dean by repeating the same junk over and over.

Also, when did all these sites become legit news? Which folks on Google decide this?

I am very suspicious of them now. They are using extreme sites that are not even legit news.

[Woodstock]

35. With all the pro-Dean sites out there linked to each other

and all the attention Dean is getting in the mainstream news outlets at the current moment (not to mention all the the left leaning news sites out there with articles about him that are every bit as trafficed as Michnews.com, for example), you would think there would be more than one or two of them popping up on the first Howard Dean Google news page, instead of the majority of the first page being anti-Democrat propaganda sites. Town Hall gets multiple listings with the "Dean Experiments on Children" nonsense, but legitimate sources get buried? What of the COUNTLESS legitimate news sites that are also loaded with links about Dean? I've read a lot of Dean articles in the mainstream press lately that I NEVER see on this first page. Many of them are joining in on the feeding frenzy and bashing him, too, but can I at least get my Democrat bashing selection on Google from CNN.com once in a while instead of Michnews.com? For those who have never had the pleasure of exploring Michnews.com, it's an amateurish looking Bush glorification/Demcorat demonizing site. What are they up to & is there something we can do to counteract it?

[Woodstock]

36. Here's how Google works

A friend found this for me. But I haven't found any special mention of the News yet. The Bush propaganda/hate sites must be flagging themselves as news sites somehow to get picked up. If they can do it, so can we...

http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html