Numerous mainstream news media outlets came together Tuesday to defend big tech giants including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, in response to warnings made by President Donald Trump earlier in the day about the left-wing bias the Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe display on their platforms.
The Associated Press denied the existence of “political leanings” coloring Google’s search algorithm. In an article entitled, “AP EXPLAINS: How Google search results work,” the AP declares: “Political leanings don’t factor into Google’s search algorithm.”
The AP’s analysis of Google’s rankings of news media outlets — including evaluations of their “authoritativeness, expertise, and trustworthiness” — is built entirely on Google’s descriptions of its own conduct.
Google’s claim that it punishes “pages that spread hate, cause harm or misinform or deceive users” is cited as evidence by the AP in its conclusion that political and partisan biases are non-factors in determining Google’s search results.
Google’s own “Trust Project” — ostensibly an endeavor to help “assess the quality and credibility of journalism” — is partnered with outfits such as Mic, the Washington Post, the Economist, and the Globe and Mail.
CNN published an article entitled, “Trump slams Google search as ‘rigged’ — but it’s not.” Support for the headline’s assertion is built entirely on Google’s denials of political and partisan biases shaping its algorithms. On Tuesday afternoon CNN’s defense of Google News was the top headline on the Google News website.
Chris Cuomo joined the CNN pile on, claiming President Trump’s tweets are “more feeling than fact.”
Yahoo asserts, “As is the case with most matters-with the exceptions of feuding and publicity-the President is way out of his depth here.” It furthers a claim that CNN and the New York Times are “authoritative” in the realm of “hard news.”
Yahoo adds that “Google is suppressing [sites that are] not real news outlets [and] actual fake news” while using “hate speech” as a legitimate term, further claiming it is “dangerous and dumb” that “the President of the United States believes conspiracy theories.”
In an article entitled, “Google gives Trump a look at reality. Trump doesn’t like it,” the Washington Post mocks Trump’s comments as a “conspiracy theory,” “idiocy plume,” “freakout,” and “crazed spasm.” Google’s algorithms, maintains the Washington Post, are “organic.”
The Week dismissed Trump’s critiques of and warnings to social media companies as a meritless “right-wing theory.”
The AP, CNN, the Washington Post, the Week, and Yahoo all market themselves as politically objective and non-partisan news media outlets.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.
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