"How Google, YouTube power their way to center of 2008 campaign"--that's the headline of an important piece by Mary Ann Ostrom in The San Jose Mercury News, which asks, "Does Google want to be the 51st state this election season?" Nobody can say Google doesn't think big!
The piece details Google's plan to cover the election, its way--which seems to be the Democratic way.
Google says that it will merely hosting the candidates, stage debates on YouTube,and so on.
Of course Google also gives money--mostly to Democrats.
And there's plenty of evidence that Google is not to be trusted on the presentation of news. Indeed, if you read herein, you will see that Bob Boorstin, ex of the Clinton White House and then the liberal/partisan Center for American Progress, is now Google's "director of corporate and policy communications." Gee, which party do you think Bob will be supporting in the presidential election? Or will he be, uh, "neutral"?
And the Merc adds this to further drill home the point about bias: "Google has assembled a team of ex-presidential campaign staffers and Washington insiders, including a few who previously worked for Al Gore, a Google senior adviser. They meet regularly to pitch new ideas, help campaigns understand advertising tools, and set up video interviews."
One could almost get the idea that Google is tipping the scale.
And that's why TCG doesn't think that Google will be able to power its way into the '08 campaign, let alone the "center" of the campaign.
Because the American people will insist on coverage that is fair, balanced, unafraid--and un-tainted.
