Google News? Comment, But NOT About Google: Free the NYC Googleplex!
Heads up: Google “news” hypocrisy plows on, big time.
The latest Google announcement seeking to affirm that Google really will organize ALL the world’s information offers the crowd pleasing: “a personal view can sometimes add a whole new dimension to the story.”
How so? Google News blog:
We wanted to give you a heads-up on a new, experimental feature we’ll be trying out on the Google News home page. Starting this week, we’ll be displaying reader comments on stories in Google News, but with a bit of a twist…
We’ll be trying out a mechanism for publishing comments from a special subset of readers: those people or organizations who were actual participants in the story in question. Our long-term vision is that any participant will be able to send in their comments, and we’ll show them next to the articles about the story.
Really Google? Then why do YOU prohibit comments about public events at the New York City Googleplex?
The Google News blog post PR spin for the new Google News feature waxes poetic about personal perspectives on news:
We’re hoping that by adding this feature, we can help enhance the news experience for readers, testing the hypothesis that — whether they’re penguin researchers or presidential candidates– a personal view can sometimes add a whole new dimension to the story.
If Google is SO keen on enabling “personal views” to enhance the news experience then why does Google muzzle commmunication about news about Google and Google sponsored public events?
Google CEO Eric Schmidt refused to take questions from the press in an open to the public Q & A after his keynote at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City in May, a conference financed by Google which purportedly sought to champion open media communication.
Google has prohibited members of the press from attending open to the pulblic events at the Googleplex in NYC, such as an inspirational talk by the “father of the Internet” and Google evangelist Vint Cerf, in a speaker series billed as a public reach out to all New Yorkers interested in technology.
Google demands that attendees of open to the public events at the Googleplex in NYC pledge to NOT comment, or report, in any venue, including Google News, about anything that goes on in not so top secret public discussions at the Googleplex, such as public career paths for testing engineers.
The official Google position on NO COMMENTS on open to the public events at the Googleplex in NYC:
In order to support the free and open exchange of information, we kindly ask that attendees refrain from recording or reporting on these meetings, their content or Google.
Google “news” hypocriocy at its best: Google bans “the journalists who help create the news” from its public events AND prohibits civilians from participating in “free and open exchange of information” about Google, while proclaiming itself not only to be the safe keeper of all the world’s information, but an advocate for media freedom as well.
WILL GOOGLE EVER PRACTICE WHAT IT PREACHES?
Google must unschackle the NYC Googleplex if it is to gain any credibility in its “free and open exchange of information” charade.
ALSO: Blogging Ethics: Why Blog ‘Disclosure’ is NO Panacea plus Facebook Profile Hijacked: Beware the Dangerous OPEN Social Graph
PLUS: Hearst Buys Kaboodle: Social Shopping or Editorial eCommerce? and Spock vs. Facebook People Search Smackdown