January 26, 2021
Investigative journalist and host of “Full Measure After House” Sharyl Attkisson says that she is one of many who’s being threatened by the IRS for taxes she has already paid and has been unable to contact the agency to resolve the issue.
Naked Capitalism
by Jerri-Lynn Scofield
Jerri-Lynn Scofield has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans.
The WSJ published a comprehensive investigation Friday, How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results, that provides fodder for ongoing or new antitrust investigations of the company, both in the US, and worldwide:
THE JOURNALâS FINDINGS undercut one of Googleâs core defenses against global regulators worried about how it wields its immense powerâthat the company doesnât exert editorial control over what it shows users. Regulatorsâ areas of concern include anticompetitive practices, political bias and online misinformation.
Permit to me quote from the WSJâs takedown at length â although I encourage readers, if possible, to read the entire (paywalled) version, for it contains a wealth of information, as well as lots of cool graphics:
Googleâs evolving approach marks a shift from its founding philosophy of âorganizing the worldâs information,â to one that is far more active in deciding how that information should appear.
More than 100 interviews and the Journalâs own testing of Googleâs search results reveal:
⢠Google made algorithmic changes to its search results that favor big businesses over smaller ones, and in at least one case made changes on behalf of a major advertiser, eBayInc., contrary to its public position that it never takes that type of action. The company also boosts some major websites, such as Amazon.com Inc.and Facebook Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
⢠Google engineers regularly make behind-the-scenes adjustments to other information the company is increasingly layering on top of its basic search results. These features include auto-complete suggestions, boxes called âknowledge panelsâ and âfeatured snippets,â and news results, which arenât subject to the same company policies limiting what engineers can remove or change.
⢠Despite publicly denying doing so, Google keeps blacklists to remove certain sites or prevent others from surfacing in certain types of results. These moves are separate from those that block sites as required by U.S. or foreign law, such as those featuring child abuse or with copyright infringement, and from changes designed to demote spam sites, which attempt to game the system to appear higher in results.
Editor’s Note: Tis the preseason of the 2018 midterms. This past week saw the release of Bob Woodward’s Fear: Trump in the White House to much fanfare from the corporate “news” media. Unsurprisingly, Trump administration officials argued that Woodward’s work included made up quotes wrongly attributed to them.
Long ago Woodward and his Washington Post cohort Carl Bernstein’s “breaking” of Watergate reached mythic status in US journalism and political history. Yet myth is usually divorced from fact, and for a reason. When one of the principal figures in this storied saga has long-established ties to the political establishment and intelligence community, as the article below by investigative writer Russ Baker demonstrates, the myth is intended to reinforce a specific agenda, in this case the taken-for-granted suggestion that Woodward is a disinterested writer and the paragon of integrity.Â
By Russ Baker
(HUSTLER MAGAZINE July 2011)
In June 2009,Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward traveled to Afghanistan with General Jim Jones, then President Obamaâs National Security Advisor, to meet with General Stanley McChrystal, then the commander of forces there. Why did Jones allow this journalist to accompany him? Because he knew that Woodward could be counted on to deliver the company lineâthe military line. In fact, Jones was essentially Woodwardâs patron.
The New Republicâs Gabriel Sherman pointed out that when Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee hosted a 50th-birthday party for Woodwardâs wife, reporter Elsa Walsh,âJones was a guest of Woodward. âAccording to Sherman, one attendee told him, âWoodward and Elsa were glued to Jones at the cocktail party before the dinner started.â
In September 2009, McChrystal (or someone close to him) leaked a document to Woodward that essentially forced Obamaâs hand. The President wanted time to consider all options on what to do about Afghanistan. But the leak, publicizing the militaryâs âconfidentialâ assertion that a troop increase was essential, cast the die, and Obama had to go along. Nobody was happier than the Pentagonâand, it should be said, its allies in the vast military-contracting establishment.