Google News comments commentary comments
Sometimes it just doesn't pay to give a less-than-full-throated defense of Google. Or maybe it's just a bad idea to make hyperbolic references to Osama bin Laden. Or both. Anyway, our editorial about Google News' new comments feature drew a hailstorm of brickbats, starting with this one from Robert Niles at USC's Online Journalism Review. Niles appears to have miscontrued our position on Google's impact on publishers; the board has long considered Google a friend to the industry, not a foe, despite what the Association of American Publishers contends. (Niles apparently has forgotten our editorial defending Google Print for Libraries. Of course, that ran back in August 2005.) His headline also suggests that Google is opening its comments section to all readers, which it isn't; only "participants" in a story are permitted to post there, or so this Google News blog post says.
The OJR piece spurred a number of other blogs to weigh in with their own criticisms, some of them thoughtful, others, well, punchier. For what it's worth, I think Jeff Jarvis and Scott Karp are right when they talk about newspapers needing to shift from presenting news as a fait accompli to providing information platforms that readers can add onto. Here at the Opinion Manufacturing Division, we tried to do that a couple of years ago, with not so good (gulp!) results. Chalk that one up as a rookie mistake, and please bear that episode in mind when you complain about us moderating comments. But I still think it's worth reminding people what Google is and isn't doing with the comments feature. It's a) trying to draw the discussion of stories away from the news sites that provided them (not too hard in the case of the LA Times and many other newspapers, which don't let readers post comments on the same page as the story that provoked/inspired them), and b) providing a platform for selected people (or, perhaps more accurately, their flaks) to comment without rebuttal from readers outside that group. More information on a topic is a good thing in general, don't get me wrong. I just hope that Google News readers will remain skeptical of what they read, not just in news stories but in the comments as well.
The Times worries that the comments section in Google News “is likely to be larded with spin, hype and obfuscation” and “won’t help readers separate the factual wheat from the public-relations chaff”. As long as sources are clearly identified, I trust the readers to make that distinction on their own.
As the gatekeepers of what goes into print or on the air, news organizations have historically had tremendous power over the public’s perception of events. Regardless of what Google News does, the Internet has dramatically changed that by giving sources and the public the opportunity to respond. Dan Rather found out the hard way when bloggers exposed serious concerns about the authenticity of documents used as the basis of a report on Bush’s service records.
In the tech world, reporters who misquote a source can pretty much count on having the source call them on it in a post on the source’s blog (or in a comment on the story itself). It’s only a matter of time before other industries catch on.
More on my blog:
http://blog.agrawals.org/2007/08/21/on-newspapers-osama-bin-laden-and-google/
Posted by: Rocky | August 23, 2007 at 12:14 PM
If we are to have change in this country, then in the next election especially the Presidential Election, voters need to vote Democratic across the board,
or we will have nothing but stalemate, after stalemate.
Ira D. York
Cell -515-460-0828
Posted by: Ira D. York | August 24, 2007 at 03:42 PM
This has been the most arrogant and secretive admin. I've ever seen in all my 48 years!!! I'd oo as far as to say, Bush and Chaney were DIRECTLY involved in the 9/11 attacks! Which if true, makes them guilty of murder and high treason! If they try to STEAL one more election, expect revoluton in the streets of America!!!! If you think this is an exageration, let' em try it one more time! We MUST have a fair and LEGITIMATE election for once!!!
Here's another thing Americans need to think about: 9/11 should've been handled by 9/13 with a tactical NUKE!
VERY SINCERLY
Wayne Weimantel
Albuquerque, nm
Posted by: wayne weismantel | November 29, 2007 at 07:30 AM