Corporations Trying to Silence Dissenters

Google defines a news organization as a news outlet with two or more employees. Under this definition the content produced by a one-man operation would not show up in Google's news section. That is wrong. One-man operations can and have produced important news pieces.

George Seldes, the creator and staff of In Fact, was one of the first to bring the public's attention to the dangers of smoking in the 1940s. At the time, all major publications were aware of the dangers of smoking, but failed to make that information public, because it would hurt their advertisement revenue. (Tobacco companies spent millions of dollars each year in advertising in newspapers.) Since Seldes would not accept any advertisements in his newsletter, he had no pressure to keep the story silent. The fact that smoking can cause cancer, heart disease and even death is an important news piece. But if Google's definition was in place in the 1940s, Seldes' pieces on smoking would never have been made available to the public.

Today, there is Glenn Greenwald, the author of the blog Unclaimed Territory. Greenwald writes about political and legal issues on his blog. His comments about the separation of power and the Patriot Act have been mentioned in the New York Times and the Washington Post. If mainstream publications accept Greenwald's writings to be newsworthy, why can't Google?

I think Google recognizes the importance of the content produced by one-man operations more than most. It sees that their writings can be damaging and effect change. Rather than let those individuals challenge the powers that be, Google silences them by not allowing their work to show up in Google's search results. According to the book, The Search, Google processes over half of all the searches on the Internet. Therefore, if Google doesn't display the work of these dissenters, the public won't know about their work.

The more voices available, the better. It helps to expand the public's knowledge and debate. People are capable of choosing what they want to listen to. They don't need Google or any other corporation to choose for them.