FC: More on Gagged by Google, Body Shop founder, and blog ad deleted

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:
"Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03598.html

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From: danbrekke () techtvcorp com
To: declan () well com
Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 11:58:55 -0700
Subject: Re: FC: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad
        deletion

Anita Roddick's site came up for me just now. The column below is a little
behind the curve in that Roddick posted a "dispatch" a week ago that expresses
disappointment with, but is highly conciliatory, toward Google. As far as the
censorship issue goes, obviously advertising policies draw lines. But I wonder
if Google means it when they say they won't take ads for politics-related
content that's "anti-anything." That rules out virtually any news media or
journal of commentary or anything else carrying the work of people who write
seriously about issues.

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Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 11:44:17 -0700
From: lizard <lizard () mrlizard com>
To: declan () well com
CC: politech () politechbot com, laura () lauraflanders com, sitka () attbi com
Subject: Re: FC: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion

Hm.

Will Roddick (or her company) be willing to sell my (theoretical) new line 
of bath soap, made from the fat of Spotted Owls and produced by enslaved 
Guatemalan children? No? She thinks she can control what is sold through 
her own business?

Censorship!

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Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 14:43:44 -0400
From: "Paul Levy" <PLEVY () citizen org>
To: <politech () politechbot com>, <declan () well com>
Cc: <sitka () attbi com>, <laura () lauraflanders com>
Subject: Re: FC: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad
        deletion

I don't agree with your analogy in point 2.  Complaining is a way of 
bringing the pressure of public / consumer opinion to bear on Google's 
decisions about maintaining and enforcing the policy.  Specific examples 
are usually much more effective than hypotheticals and generalities.

Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html

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From: "Singleton, Norman" <Norman.Singleton () mail house gov>
To: declan () well com
Subject: RE: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion
Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 14:36:35 -0400

the peeved roddick begins to sound like Mitch McConnell on campaign
finance -- so government censorship of political opinions doesn't bother
this chap?


Norman Kirk Singleton
Legislative Director
Congressman Ron Paul
US House of Representatives

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Date: Sat, 01 Jun 2002 12:15:36 -0400
From: Nick Bretagna <onemug () gdn net>
Reply-To: afn41391 () afn org
To: declan () well com
CC: laura () lauraflanders com, sitka () attbi com, marsh6 () optonline net,
        davidvest () attbi com, adwords-support () google com
Subject: Re: FC: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion

regarding:
 <http://www.politechbot.com/p-03598.html>http://www.politechbot.com/p-03598.html 



As previously commented with regards the Bowman's Brigade issue some months 
back, I cannot say there is any rational basis for legal action with 
regards this sort of thing -- but I steadfastly reject the notion that it 
is their business to reject income which is not inherently offensive to a 
large segment of the population, and that only on the surface/up-front 
advertisement itself, not on deeper content.

I have, ever since, consistently avoided Google, and I suggest that all 
people do the same until those at Google grasp that this sort of 
decisionmaking, tantamount to censorship,  is unacceptable with regards 
their overall  function.

It's not merely shortsighted, Declan, it's reprehensible.

There is a reason the Yellow Pages carry discrete ads and references for 
Adult Bookstores, Entertainment, and Massage Parlors in them, despite the 
fact that some would consider the very existence of such as offensive in 
itself.

It is the clear and self-evident purpose of the YP to provide information 
about legal businesses in the area, not to provide or exercise comment on 
the moral aspects of their business.

Likewise, it is the clear and self-evident purpose of a search engine to 
provide links to web pages, not to judge their content and deny those 
references to people who would be seeking them.

Search engines are bad enough, with the dot-decom of Infind (far and away 
the best search engine I had ever used, and still orders of magnitude 
better than any of the remaining existing engines) without now having to 
concern myself with whether or not there are links I am missing because 
some coprolyte//// sorry "corporate" schmuck thinks they have some mandate 
to censor them.

They are not a magazine or a web page -- that is not their function. If 
that was all they are, then such editorializing is within the bounds of 
propriety. They are, instead, a reference to internet content, and 
excluding some topics for reference -- exercising "editorial exception" -- 
is ludicrously counter-purpose.

I suggest a boycott of Google is in not only in order, but way overdue, and 
I recommend this to all concerned, and you may quote me on that.

--
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Nicholas Bretagna II
<mailto:afn41391 () afn org>mailto:afn41391 () afn org

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Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 22:16:45 +0100
From: Toby Inkster <tobyink () goddamn co uk>
To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion

On Fri, 31 May 2002 13:43:50 -0400
Declan McCullagh <declan () well com> wrote:

DM> Roddick is the founder of the Body Shop, the notable
DM> socially-responsible health-and-beauty store chain.

The Body Shop hardly has a peachy clean record as far as social 
responsibility goes.

I refer you to:
http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/companies/bs_ref.html

--
          Toby A Inkster, Esq. ~ http://www.goddamn.co.uk/tobyink/
              mailto:tobyink<at>goddamn.co.uk ~ gpg:0x5274FE5A
  jabber:tobyink<at>amessage.de ~ icq:6622880 ~ aim:inka80 ~ yahoo:tobyink






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