[Seattle-editorial] Fwd: SF Indymedia Banned from Google News Over Israel/Palestine Controversy

[typist at speakeasy.net]

Yes!


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sheri Herndon [mailto:sheri at speakeasy.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 3, 2003 10:14 PM
> To: typist at speakeasy.net, 'Seattle Editorial'
> Subject: Re:  [Seattle-editorial]  Fwd: SF Indymedia Banned from Google         News Over Israel/Palestine Controversy
> 
> hi,
> 
> i think it's great if we encourage people to publish their stuff.  i always do this.  we don't have time to also do that cutting and pasting.  i just asked john fox to publish the piece about compton and to send the link.  that might be a good "policy" for us to encourage in our community.  if they want to see a story featured, send us the link as part of the proposal.
> 
> just an idea :)
> 
> sheri
> 
> >I tend to lean toward having them publish to the newswire because it is 
> >less work for the editorial collective.  I really don't want to have to 
> >cut and paste; and can't really volunteer to do that anytime soon as 
> >have numerous tasks to do as I'm sure is the case for others.  If the 
> >writer wants a public viewing, get it on the newswire, at least it will 
> >be there for when others have a chance to focus on it.
> >
> >There really are times when we need to contact people-- to reduce their 
> >photos on the newswire for one thing.
> >
> >Judy
> >
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Sheri Herndon [mailto:sheri at speakeasy.org]
> >> Sent: Wednesday, September 3, 2003 04:20 PM
> >> To: typist at speakeasy.net
> >> Cc: 'Seattle Editorial', gekked at blackflag.net
> >> Subject: Re: [Seattle-editorial]  Fwd: SF Indymedia Banned from Google     
> >News Over Israel/Palestine Controversy
> >>
> >> hi judy and editorial team,
> >>
> >> i've checked the sf newswire and i can't find the story.   gekked is 
> >from the imc-sf collective and this has been a story that has been 
> >percolating for months.  many of us have been 'following' it from the 
> >sidelines.  so this is now finally "news".
> >>
> >> i like the policy of having features linked to actual stories because 
> >it allows the comment feature to come into play and that is critical.  
> >so i have no problem with that.
> >>
> >> personally, i don't think we need a policy for contacting "authors" 
> >directly when it is clear they have made their statements public and are 
> >asking for greater distribution of the story.  if we started doing that, 
> >we might run into strange complications like waiting for people to get 
> >back to us in order for us to "publish" what is already out in the 
> >public domaine.
> >>
> >> so yes post to the newswire (not sure about asking authors to do that 
> >as well) but i have a problem with developing a policy for contacting 
> >people and asking them to post their materials and/or ask permission to 
> >do so..  i don't think that's necessary.
> >>
> >> peace,
> >> sheri
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> >Yes, I think it is a possible feature idea.  But we now have a policy 
> >> >that stories should be posted to the Seattle newswire so that we can
> >> >write up or pull a couple of paragraphs to link to them.  I am a 
> >little
> >> >hesitant to take someone's writing and post it to the newswire 
> >without
> >> >them knowing about it, so am cc'ing the author to do that and let us
> >> >know when it is posted.
> >> >
> >> >Thanks!
> >> >Judy
> >> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> >> From: Sheri Herndon [mailto:sheri at speakeasy.org]
> >> >> Sent: Wednesday, September 3, 2003 03:33 PM
> >> >> To: 'Seattle Editorial'
> >> >> Subject: [Seattle-editorial] 	Fwd: SF Indymedia Banned from Google
> >> >News Over Israel/Palestine	Controversy
> >> >>
> >> >> possible story?
> >> >>
> >> >> ====== Forwarded Message ======
> >> >> Date: 9/3/03 12:43 AM
> >> >> Received: 9/3/03 7:43 AM
> >> >> From: gekked at blackflag.net
> >> >> To: cuibono at rcip.com
> >> >>
> >> >> Please e-mail Google News (contact info below) and let them know 
> >what
> >> >> you think about this!
> >> >>
> >> >> GOOGLE NEWS BANS SAN FRANCISCO INDYMEDIA OVER ISRAEL/PALESTINE
> >> >> CONTROVERSY, ANTI-ARAB SLURS LIKE "RAGHEAD" ARE ALLOWED
> >> >>
> >> >> Around March 13 of this year, I discovered that San Francisco IMC
> >> >> was no longer being indexed by Google News. I wrote to them asking
> >> >> why, and a week later they replied that they only index sites which
> >> >> have editorial review. I explained to them that, while we accept 
> >all
> >> >> article submissions, we have an active editorial team that reviews
> >> >> articles for our Local/Global section. Volunteer programmers coded
> >> >> a new SF-IMC webpage exclusively for Google which allowed them to
> >> >> index only our reviewed articles.
> >> >>
> >> >> On May 13, Google News again removed us from the index. According 
> >to
> >> >> Marissa Mayer, product manager for Google News, this action was
> >> >> taken because a few articles indexed included the term "zionazi,"
> >> >> which they consider a "degrading hateful slur."
> >> >>
> >> >> SF-IMC replied to Google News through email and even had a 
> >conference
> >> >> call with them, explaining that we have an editorial policy that
> >> >> specifically excludes hate speech, and that we agree "zionazi"
> >> >> could be considered hate speech.
> >> >>
> >> >> In addition, we asked for details on how their search engine
> >> >> spidered this article at all, since our editorial team had not
> >> >> reviewed it and it shouldn't have been spidered by them. Around
> >> >> the same time, SF-IMC received anonymous emails from people
> >> >> claiming that they will "make sure" we are kicked out of Google
> >> >> News.
> >> >>
> >> >> It was at this point that we stopped hearing back from Google
> >> >> News at all. We emailed and called them for weeks but got
> >> >> absolutely no reply.
> >> >>
> >> >> Worse still, Google News seems to be a lot less vigilant when it
> >> >> comes to racist hate speech directed at Arabs and Muslims. For
> >> >> instance, at any time you can search for "islamofascist" at Google
> >> >> News and get a handful of results.
> >> >>
> >> >> Even more disturbing, on September 2, I searched for "green beret
> >> >> iraq" which returned an article written by a soldier in Iraq that
> >> >> refers to "ragheads" throughout:
> >> >>
> >> >> "Instead of being sitting ducks for the ragheads we now are going
> >> >> after the worthless pieces of fecal matter."
> >> >> (http://bigjweb.com/artman/publish/article_696.shtml)
> >> >>
> >> >> "Ragheads" and "islamofascists" is journalism according to Google
> >> >> News?
> >> >>
> >> >> I believe that Google News needs to take responsibility for their
> >> >> seemingly one-sided tolerance of what is and is not "hate speech,"
> >> >> acknowledge that Indymedia sites have active editorial teams who
> >> >> provide hours of volunteer labor to ensure that quality information
> >> >> is getting out, and work with IMCs around the world to get this
> >> >> information into Google News.
> >> >>
> >> >> If Google News is nothing more than right-wing and corporate
> >> >> media, they aren't providing a worthwhile service. Indymedia
> >> >> is a global phenomenon with active groups in the US, Middle
> >> >> East, South America, Europe, Canada, Africa and Asia, all working 
> >to
> >> >> produce journalism that is otherwise censored or untouched by
> >> >> multinational corporate media.
> >> >>
> >> >> I invite Google News to again contact SF-IMC at sf at indymedia.org so
> >> >> that we can work out this difference.
> >> >>
> >> >> If you feel the same way, please contact Google News:
> >> >> news-feedback at google.com (general contact)
> >> >>
> >> >> Please cc: your letters to sf at indymedia.org
> >> >>
> >> >> Written by gek, sf-imc, gekked at blackflag.net
> >> >>
> >> >> --- please forward widely ---
> >> >>
> >> >> ====== End Forwarded Message ======
> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> Seattle-editorial mailing list
> >> >> Seattle-editorial at lists.indymedia.org
> >> >> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/seattle-editorial
> >> >>
> >> >
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