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

Jason Reep jasonr at speakeasy.net
Wed Sep 3 17:36:28 PDT 2003 

approve.

also,  I have to say that I don't think that a mixture of feature styles 
is a bad thing at all.  I think it's fine and maybe prefereable to favor 
features developed from the newswire but the more 
non-corporate/independent journalism links included the better.  If they 
lead you to other IMC sites that's great (or ZNET or Common Dreams or 
Cursor.org, other local indy publications or even Salon...).  Don't get 
me wrong, I think it's important to get articles that we want to feature 
into our newswire so the commenting can build the story, but I also 
think we've developed a really good style of link heavy (including 
offsite ones)feature writing over the past three years.

my 2 cents.

it's great to see the writing energy picking up.

-jason

typist at speakeasy.net wrote:
> The following is a quick and dirty feature highlight proposal.  The only qualm I have about this is sending people off the Seattle IMC site.  At least when we point to our newswire people can return to the Seattle front page easily.  Not everyone knows how to use the back arrow.  With that caveat, here is proposal:
> 
> 
> [subtitle] CORPORATE CENSORSHIP AT GOOGLE NEWS?
> 
> [title] Google News bans San Francisco Indymedia over alleged racial slurs while allowing anti-Arab slurs to stand
> 
> 
> [text]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." 
> 
> <a href="http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/1639862.php">
> Full story on San Francisco IMC site.</a>
> 
>>-----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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