Public Google Sucks
Posted by unbrand on 8 May 2005 | 2 Comments
Once Google went public, that was the end. They could no longer do what they wanted because they were now answerable to shareholders. From that point on, Google has been and will become more conservative. According to New Scientist, Google has filed a patent to make the news rankings more mainstream-friendly. Fucking brilliant.
I wonder if Sergey Brin and Larry Page are aware of Operation Mockingbird? From the link above:
Former Washington Post publisher Philip Graham “believing that the function of the press was more often than not to mobilize consent for the policies of the government, was one of the architects of what became a widespread practice: the use and manipulation of journalists by the CIA” (81). This scandal was known by its code name Operation MOCKINGBIRD. Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein cites a former CIA deputy director as saying, “It was widely known that Phil Graham was someone you could get help from” (82). More recently the Post provided cover for CIA personality Joseph Fernandez by “refusing to print his name for over a year up until the day his indictment was announced …for crimes committed in his official capacity as CIA station chief in Costa Rica”.
That was over a decade ago. There is no reason to think that these activities have diminished in that time. In fact, quite the opposite is true as the mainstream media in America has very clearly become little more than the mouthpiece of the current administration.
So now, Google will be reinforcing mainstream media’s stranglehold on information flow in the States, and around the web. That should make Wall Street very happy.
UPDATE: There’s this article from the Guardian that mentions the issue of Google’s credibility as god of the internets. Zeus didn’t have to answer to a board. But if he did, I bet Kleiner Perkins would be on it.