What’s in a Gulf’s Name? A Test for Democracy
The Trump administration has created a fake controversy to bully the media, and the public, to go along with what it says, no matter how strange.
‘Google Is Able to Profit Extraordinarily Off of Not Having Competition’:
CounterSpin interview with Lee Hepner on Google monopoly
“Google has maintained its monopoly position, not necessarily by having a superior product, but by blocking out rivals.”
Lee Hepner on Google Monopoly, Shayana Kadidal on Guantanamo Plea Deal
Does the company that “corners the market” do so because people simply prefer what they sell? The anti-monopoly ruling against Google challenges that idea of how things work.
‘Erasure of Content Can Be a Problem for the Public and for History’
“If…you need to add a new revenue stream and you don’t have any great ideas, the obvious one is to add more ads to your platform.”
‘That Loss of Privacy Is the Monopoly Price’
“They should be treated with skepticism; as much as we love their products, as much as we depend on them—and so many of us still do—it’s also healthy to cast a skeptical eye on them. And to recognize the problems that technology can’t solve.”
Jessica Martinez on Gutting Worker Protections, Mitch Stoltz on Breaking Up Big Tech
Workers in fields, factories and hospitals, endangered by the pandemic, are now held up as pawns, as some lawmakers look to make workers’ health and safety a “tradeoff” for Covid relief.
US Media Lament Internet Censorship—in China, Not US
Corporate US media are ready to decry apparent censorship when it originates in what’s deemed an enemy state. Yet they fail to sound the alarm when US tech companies demonstrate clear patterns of restricting information.
Who Will Take on the 21st Century Tech and Media Monopolies?
Waves of consolidation in the technology, telecom and entertainment industries have concentrated power over media content and delivery into just a handful of companies. Today, there are only a few dominant players in each industry.
‘Women Were in Fact Pioneers in Computing Work’
“We’re finally getting to the point where we’re starting to see sexism in tech is actually an issue we have to look at, and we can’t turn away from, or see it as a niche or a women’s issue anymore.”
Phyllis Bennis on Afghanistan, Marie Hicks on Women in Tech
In all the chatter about Afghanistan, the idea that there are other ways for a country to show strength besides killing people, or threatening to, is the worldview that dare not speak its name.
Bob McChesney on Internet Giants and the National Security State
Last week on CounterSpin, we spoke with scholar and media historian Bob McChesney about his new book Digital Disconnect. His closing thoughts seems especially relevant in light of the blockbuster reporting this week from the Guardian and Washington Post.
Newsweek Continues Wrestling With Aggregators
Under the charming headline “Eliminate the Parasites,” Newsweek‘s Daniel Lyons (9/12/09) advances another brilliant scheme to save corporate media from the menace of Google. Lyons likes the idea put forward by billionaire Ayn Rand fan Mark Cuban: Cuban’s advice: declare war on the “aggregator” Web sites that get a free ride on content. These aggregators–sites […]
NY Post Steals From, Refuses to Credit Bloggers
In looking at “all the angst over online appropriation of newspapers’ work,” Nieman Foundation blogger Zachary M. Seward (Nieman Journalism Lab, 9/4/09) thinks that “information actually flows in all directions, right?” As “blog posts inspire newspaper articles, newspapers lift from other newspapers, and radio stations do the rip-and-read,” Seward writes that “when a blogger uncovered […]
On Google, HuffPo and the Business of Conveying Information
I give Peter Osnos credit for not being as nutty as Richard Posner or as self-pitying as Dana Milbank; his piece from CJR on “Whatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s a Fair Share In the Age of Google?” (7-8/09) is the most reasonable version I’ve seen of the news industry’s case against the search engine company. Still, I can’t help […]
Who Actually Clicks on Those Pesky Links Anyway?
Considering how, “in recent months, news aggregators like the Huffington Post have received heated criticism from some who believe theyâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢re stealing valuable traffic and ad revenue from newspapers,” with even “appeals court Judge Richard Posner recently wr[iting] a widely-linked post arguing that copyright law should be changed in order to bar linking to websites and […]
The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Search Engines
Corporate media’s arguments against Google are getting stranger and stranger. While previously the Washington Post had accused the search engine of “vacuum[ing] up their content without paying a dime,” now the Post has media lawyers Bruce Sanford and Bruce Brown (5/16/09) charging that search engines “crawl the Web and ingest everything in their path.” Can […]
Google, the Journalism-Killing Vacuum
We’ve written about this before, but today (5/11/09) the Washington Post‘s Howard Kurtz turned in another example of journalists who seem to believe Google is what’s killing their industry.Responding totalks between his employer and Google about some sort of collaboration, Kurtz writes: Hanging over the talks is the reality that the search giant, while funneling […]
Dana Milbank Stamps His Foot at the Unfairness of Google
In a column attacking Google and other “accused newspaper industry killers,” the Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank (5/7/09) doesn’t present much of an argument for why newspapers are dying—but he provides an excellent example of why journalism like his deserves to die. [Marissa] Mayer, who oversees Google News, explained how “Google is doing its part” to […]
If Google Is Handing Out Free Money, Newspapers Would Like Some
Maureen Dowd today (New York Times, 4/15/09) writes about the newspaper industry’s complaints about Google: Robert Thomson, the top editor of the Wall Street Journal, denounced websites like Google as “tapeworms.” His boss, Rupert Murdoch, said that big newspapers do not have to let Google “steal our copyrights.” The AP has threatened to take legal […]
