5 ms·

Sure, but that's a dishonest straw man argument you've just made.

by creaghpatr 8y ago

s73v3r_ 8y ago
But that's the exact situation at hand.
komali2 8y ago
Why is it only GOP lawmakers meeting with Google, after the GOP president complained about anti-gop bias?
- manfredo 8y ago
  Because if Google is biased against conservatives, Democracts don't stand to benefit from helping point it out. Pointing out that complainers disproportionately come from a certain demographic does not automatically invalidate the complaint. Why is it mostly left wing people complaining about fake news or hate speech on these platforms, why do most complaints about misogyny come from women? Is it because the complaints in question are fabricated, or because one portion of the population is disproportionately affected?
  - jonathankoren 8y ago
    But liberal media complaints are manufactured. We can say this for certain, because multiple GOP operatives have repeated admitted it over the decades. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/16/books/chapters/what-liberal-media.html https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/16/books/chapters/what-liber...
- creaghpatr 8y ago
  Sounds like you answered your own question.
  - komali2 8y ago
    So how is it a strawman that the GOP is using governmental power to pressure Google (which does not censor conservative content) to show more conservative content? As Google does not censor conservative content, what else would only GOP officials be upset about? If it was general election integrity, the other major issue cross tech/politics right now, why aren't isn't it a bipartisan meeting? Actually, the GOP has downplayed election integrity issues, which further convinces me that it is not a strawman argument to claim the GOP is pressuring tech companies to show more pro-conservative content.
    - zaroth 8y ago
      > As Google does not censor conservative content... There are certainly many anecdotal complaints about Google censoring or demonetizing conservatives on YouTube. There have been a few notable instances where Google has promoted incendiary content against conservatives in their search results “answers” — although those cases seemed to algorithms picking up tainted UGC. [1] Also anecdotally, Google News seems to present a highly scewed viewpoint (browsing logged off with no cookies, only inferred location from IP). I’m not aware of rigorous studies, but by no means would I take it as a foregone conclusion that Google is not censoring conservative content. [1] - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trudy-wade-google-search-result-california-republican-party/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trudy-wade-google-search-result...
      - komali2 8y ago
        In the case of Trudy Wade, it was because a student blog was biased against her, which doesn't surprise or upset me. Because Google took it down and apologized, I surmise that this is evidence that they are not biased against conservatives. I appreciate your genuine approach here. The reason I'm being so militant on actual evidence is due to excellent coaching from many people I admire in my life to challenge assumptions and anecdote. Trust me, I'm great fun in design meetings. In this case, I'd agree with you that Google News presents generally liberal news. Generally I'd say this is because there is 1 conservative media conglomerate (Fox) vs so many liberal ones (CNN, NBC, etc), and meanwhile the many ones I would consider "fair" (Al Jazeera, BBC, NPR, NYTimes, WaPo, NHK) seem so anti-conservative because, well, conservative politicians keep doing some pretty shitty things. That being said, Fox is a default source on my uncookied google news, and I've seen Breitbart and other extraordinarily conservative sources, so I don't think there is a Google-level explicit bias, rather a failure on the part of conservative-leaning media to present a perspective as level-headed as, say, NPR. When the best it has to offer is Fox, Breitbart, and InfoWars, I'm not surprised it gets churned. Just checking through sources I had to block due to simply terribly ham-fisted propaganda attempts, here's other ones that show up on google news by default: Investor's Business Daily New York Post RealClearPolitics Screen Rant The Hill Washington Times nationalreview

Sure, but that's a dishonest straw man argument you've just made.

s73v3r_ 8y ago

But that's the exact situation at hand.

komali2 8y ago

Why is it only GOP lawmakers meeting with Google, after the GOP president complained about anti-gop bias?

manfredo 8y ago
Because if Google is biased against conservatives, Democracts don't stand to benefit from helping point it out. Pointing out that complainers disproportionately come from a certain demographic does not automatically invalidate the complaint. Why is it mostly left wing people complaining about fake news or hate speech on these platforms, why do most complaints about misogyny come from women? Is it because the complaints in question are fabricated, or because one portion of the population is disproportionately affected?
- jonathankoren 8y ago
  But liberal media complaints are manufactured. We can say this for certain, because multiple GOP operatives have repeated admitted it over the decades. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/16/books/chapters/what-liberal-media.html https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/16/books/chapters/what-liber...
creaghpatr 8y ago
Sounds like you answered your own question.
- komali2 8y ago
  So how is it a strawman that the GOP is using governmental power to pressure Google (which does not censor conservative content) to show more conservative content? As Google does not censor conservative content, what else would only GOP officials be upset about? If it was general election integrity, the other major issue cross tech/politics right now, why aren't isn't it a bipartisan meeting? Actually, the GOP has downplayed election integrity issues, which further convinces me that it is not a strawman argument to claim the GOP is pressuring tech companies to show more pro-conservative content.
  - zaroth 8y ago
    > As Google does not censor conservative content... There are certainly many anecdotal complaints about Google censoring or demonetizing conservatives on YouTube. There have been a few notable instances where Google has promoted incendiary content against conservatives in their search results “answers” — although those cases seemed to algorithms picking up tainted UGC. [1] Also anecdotally, Google News seems to present a highly scewed viewpoint (browsing logged off with no cookies, only inferred location from IP). I’m not aware of rigorous studies, but by no means would I take it as a foregone conclusion that Google is not censoring conservative content. [1] - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trudy-wade-google-search-result-california-republican-party/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trudy-wade-google-search-result...
    - komali2 8y ago
      In the case of Trudy Wade, it was because a student blog was biased against her, which doesn't surprise or upset me. Because Google took it down and apologized, I surmise that this is evidence that they are not biased against conservatives. I appreciate your genuine approach here. The reason I'm being so militant on actual evidence is due to excellent coaching from many people I admire in my life to challenge assumptions and anecdote. Trust me, I'm great fun in design meetings. In this case, I'd agree with you that Google News presents generally liberal news. Generally I'd say this is because there is 1 conservative media conglomerate (Fox) vs so many liberal ones (CNN, NBC, etc), and meanwhile the many ones I would consider "fair" (Al Jazeera, BBC, NPR, NYTimes, WaPo, NHK) seem so anti-conservative because, well, conservative politicians keep doing some pretty shitty things. That being said, Fox is a default source on my uncookied google news, and I've seen Breitbart and other extraordinarily conservative sources, so I don't think there is a Google-level explicit bias, rather a failure on the part of conservative-leaning media to present a perspective as level-headed as, say, NPR. When the best it has to offer is Fox, Breitbart, and InfoWars, I'm not surprised it gets churned. Just checking through sources I had to block due to simply terribly ham-fisted propaganda attempts, here's other ones that show up on google news by default: Investor's Business Daily New York Post RealClearPolitics Screen Rant The Hill Washington Times nationalreview