August 28, 2018

Donald Trump Is Tired of Being Screwed by Google

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Donald Trump is pissed:

Google search results for “Trump News” shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% of results on “Trump News” are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous. Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!

And what’s to be done about this dire situation?

The Trump administration is “taking a look” at whether Google and its search engine should be regulated by the government, Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s economic adviser, said Tuesday outside the White House. “We’ll let you know,” said Kudlow. “We’re taking a look at it.”

Well, let’s take a look at what I get when I open a Google window and search for Trump:

  • CNN
  • Fox News
  • Vice News
  • Politico
  • Trump’s Twitter feed
  • Guardian
  • Politico
  • NBC News
  • News about #trump on Twitter
  • Donald J. Trump for President
  • Washington Post
  • Fox News
  • CNN
  • Pittsburgh Post Gazette
  • ABC6OnYourSide
  • Washington Times
  • CNBC
  • Vanity Fair
  • The Atlantic
  • New York
  • Wikipedia
  • ABC News
  • Trump Hotels.com
  • Vanity Fair
  • The Atlantic
  • Trump National Golf Club
  • White House.gov
  • New York Times
  • YouTube
  • Bloomberg
  • Trump Tower New York
  • Twitch.tv/trumpsc
  • USA Today
  • New Republic
  • RealClear Politics

I got bored of transcribing sites after that, But it looks to me like about a third of them are sympathetic to Trump. The other two-thirds are standard news sites, and sure enough, their coverage is mostly about whatever dumb thing Trump has done lately. But what do you expect? It’s not like Trump gives them much to work with.

Anyway, it’s obvious that Trump can’t “do anything” about this. It’s just another effort to bully someone into tweaking their algorithms to give him more positive coverage. First it was Facebook, then Twitter, and now Google. They’re all “shadow banning” the sources who are sympathetic to Trump, you see, and that’s an outrage. The White House demands that everyone give him more positive coverage!

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Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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