This Christmas season, Google can give us all an inestimable gift by curing the leftist bias in its “Google News” service.
Everyone knows Google’s search products are biased. In this column I offer some objective evidence that shows it.
Because of the nature of my job, I check Google News every morning except Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath). I did so on Christmas Day, 2020. Remember that President Donald Trump was still in office, the presidential election was over but the results remained controversial, and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot had not yet happened.
- “The Republican heroes and villains of Trump’s attempt to steal the election.” This headline was from The Guardian, Britain’s leading socialist organ.
- “House Dems urge Trump to sign COVID relief bill.” The source was the liberal Los Angeles Times.
- “Americans suffer at Christmas while Trump golfs and sows chaos.” The source was the partisan liberal outlet, CNN.
- “Trump gives America chaos for Christmas”—from Jeff Bezos’s liberal Washington Post.
- “Op-Ed: It’s never too late to become a Democrat”—more from the Los Angeles Times.
Matters have not improved at Google News over the past year, as shown by my usual morning Google News check on Dec. 15, 2021.
The Dec. 15 front page listed several items from liberal broadcast media, such as ABC and CNN. (CNN, essentially an unofficial mouthpiece for the National Democratic Party, may be Google News’s most favored source.) By contrast, there were no results from the conservative broadcasters Newsmax or One America News Network. As far as I’ve seen in my years of using Google News, there never have been.
Among wire services, my Dec. 15 inquiry produced stories from Bloomberg, Reuters, and the Associated Press—liberal outfits all—but nothing from any conservative counterpart, such as CNSNews. I have never seen CNSNews on any Google News front page.
Among more traditional media, my Dec. 15 inquiry produced items from the liberal Washington Post, as it does virtually every day. But there was nothing from the Post’s conservative rival, the Washington Times. And there never is. Nor have I ever seen an item from the conservative Washington Free Beacon, and rarely, if at all, from the Washington Examiner.
The New York Times made its appearance on Dec. 15, as it does every day. But The Epoch Times did not, and almost never does. The only center-right source I see regularly on the Google News front page is Fox.
The stridently left-wing Daily Beast was absent on Dec. 15. That’s unusual, because the Daily Beast is one of Google News’s favorite outlets. Why it should be so favored is inexplicable for any conceivable reason other than bias. Conservative counterparts to the Beast, such as RedState, Breitbart, and Townhall, rarely, if ever, appear on the Google News front page.
- Washington Football Team
- Washington Post
- Washington—Location
- Washington—Topic
- Washington Huskies football
- Washington Capitals
- Washington Wizards
Entering “Daily” in the search line was even more frustrating. It brought up the British Daily Mail (right), the Daily Beast (strongly left), the Daily News (strongly left), and the Daily Kos (hard left). It didn’t produce the Daily Wire.
May I suggest that this holiday season Google might show its public-spiritedness by correcting its bias?
Yes, I know—it won’t. And, unfortunately, people like me must keep using this defective product, if only to keep abreast of the latest twists in the Deep State party line. But it’s just as important to click on alternative news sources every day.
Pre-eminently: The Epoch Times.