During routine daily maintenance to The New Media Journal website it was observed that the new opinion and news entries published for May 19, 2006 did not appear in any Google News or Google Search Engine query. What was uncovered after Frank Salvato, managing editor, contacted Google News was nothing short of censorship and a blatant violation of the First Amendment right to free speech.
Each morning, Frank Salvato, after uploading the day’s new edition of The New Media Journal, would diligently check the statistics and the community of search engines to chart reader trends and to make sure that the search engines captured the newly published opinion pieces. On Friday, May 19, 2006, Google News’ crawl omitted The New Media Journal.
Mr. Salvato contacted Google Help to inquire about the omission suspecting that it was a technical error. The response from Google Help was not what he expected.
The following is the actual email received from Google Help explaining why The New Media Journal was to be censored by Google News and Google Search:
-----Original Message-----
From: Google Help [mailto:source-suggestions@google.com]
Sent: Friday, May 19, 2006 11:56 AM
To: NewMediaJournal.us
Subject: [#58423255] Google News
Hi Frank,
Thanks for writing. We received numerous reports about hate content on your site, and after reviewing these reports, decided to remove your site from Google News. We do not allow articles and sources expressly promoting hate speech viewpoints in Google News (although referencing hate speech for commentary and analysis is acceptable).
For example, a number of the complaints we looked at on your site were found to be hate content:
http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/peck/05102006.htm
http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/stock/05082006.htm
http://www.newmediajournal.us/guest/imani/04222006.htm
We hope this helps you understand our position.
Regards,
The Google Team
The fact is, All of the writers mentioned in the complaints are contributors to numerous other websites included in Google Search and Google News. Therefore, the targeting of The New Media Journal.us is selective and does not constitute a consistent policy applied to all publications by Google.
Further, each of the writers have credentials in the subject area of radical Islam:
Ms. Peck is a television host and columnist from Los Angeles who has spent an extensive amount of time in Israel and the Middle East. Although her viewpoint is entirely her own it is validated by of her first-hand life experience.
Mr. Imani is an Iranian national whose family had to flee after the Shah was toppled. He has first-hand knowledge of the atrocities committed within that country and his viewpoint is validated by his life experiences.
Ms. Stock validates her viewpoint through research of first-source material from think tanks and governmental agencies.
Finally, The New Media Journal is branded on each page with a disclaimer that reads:
"Opinions expressed by contributing writers are expressly their own and may or may not represent the opinions of The New Media Journal.us, its editorial staff or its publisher."
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