Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: Google vs. Michael Moore's "Sicko"?
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007 19:44:20 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Anthony Watson <anthony () neo-liberalism org> Date: July 1, 2007 7:05:35 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: lauren () vortex com Subject: RE: [IP] Google vs. Michael Moore's "Sicko"? Here I was asking myself this morning why Kurt Loder's MTV.com article attacking Moore as a money-hungry grandstander kept showing up when I brought up news.google.com . Usually those articles churn prettythoroughly and a three-day old article is not going to get top billing in Google News, but for some reason over the last three days, every time I go
to Google news, I see a link for Kurt Loder's article. Hmmmm??? What is Google up to? Perhaps we are about to see a replay of the growing money power of thehi-tech robber barons as we did in 2000, when I strongly suspect that Bill Gates threw a lot of support into the Bush campaign to prevent his company
from being broken up. Google seems to be really taking a political position and may even betailoring its news filtering to support it. However, I am a little baffled
as to the nature of Google's interest in this issue. Yuck! ~aw -----Original Message----- From: David Farber (by way of Anthony Watson <Anthony.Watson () dollarsandsense com>) [mailto:dave () farber net] Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2007 3:59 PM To: anthony () neo-liberalism org Subject: [IP] Google vs. Michael Moore's "Sicko"? Begin forwarded message: From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com> Date: July 1, 2007 12:38:26 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: lauren () vortex com Subject: Google vs. Michael Moore's "Sicko"? Google vs. Michael Moore's "Sicko"? http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000258.html Greetings. In a posting on the Google Health Advertising Blog ( http://google-health-ads.blogspot.com ), that can only be described as bizarre, a Google "Account Planner" has eviscerated Michael Moore's new, widely acclaimed film Sicko (see "Does negative press make you Sicko?" - http://tinyurl.com/yrc7vs ). The "cure" suggested by this Google employee for Moore's negative but generally viewed as accurate portrayal of the U.S. Health Care Industry? Spend more money on placing Google ads! Seriously, you have to read the posting yourself to appreciate it. I for one am willing to give Google the "Don't Be Evil" benefit of the doubt on this one. I'm assuming that this episode is the result of a single, uh, "overenthusiastic" employee and not a statement of broader corporate policy. But I do believe that it would be quite useful for Google to issue a formal clarification regarding this rather sicko situation ASAP -- or ideally even sooner! Bulletin! A few seconds ago while I was preparing the text above, a new posting by the author of the original anti-"Sicko" Google blog entry has appeared ( http://tinyurl.com/2ba6jq ). Personally, I don't think that it goes far enough toward clarifying this matter appropriately. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, IOIC - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net Founder, CIFIP - California Initiative For Internet Privacy - http://www.cifip.org Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.9.14/883 - Release Date: 7/1/2007 12:19 PM ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Current thread:
- Google vs. Michael Moore's "Sicko"? David Farber (Jul 01)
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- Re: Google vs. Michael Moore's "Sicko"? David Farber (Jul 01)
- Re: Google vs. Michael Moore's "Sicko"? David Farber (Jul 01)
- Re: Google vs. Michael Moore's "Sicko"? David Farber (Jul 01)