Yesterday, an editor of a newspaper that will never run my work wrote to ask why do all my cartoons bash “our” president. He said he wanted more conservative and Trump-friendly cartoons to “match his readership.” Obviously, his newspaper isn’t showing up in the top search results when Trump Googles himself.
The people who call liberals “snowflakes” are whining again. Donald Trump’s newest distraction designed to divide not based in reality is that now algorithms are biased against him.
Trump tweeted early Tuesday that the “fake news media” make up 96% of the news displayed in Google’s search for “Trump news.” He accused Google of not including Republican, conservative, and “fair media” in search results which he said is rigged illegally against him.
In a couple of tweets, Trump ranted, “Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% of results on ‘Trump News’ are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous. Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!”
Google responded with, “When users type queries into the Google Search bar, our goal is to make sure they receive the most relevant answers in a matter of seconds.” That’s exactly what Trump doesn’t want, the “most relevant.”
Donald Trump would rather the first results be information he finds favorable to him, like conspiracy theories, Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, that Trump has ended the North Korean nuclear threat, he has the biggest crowds, the Access Hollywood tape is a fake, illegal voters kept him from winning the popular vote, and his tiny fingers are of a normal size for a grown man.
Trump’s biggest issue with search results being relevant isn’t that they’re liberal, but they’re actually relevant. The most relevant are legitimate news organizations that use journalistic ethics and guidelines. The first ones to pop up are CNN, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and even Fox News. In addition to Fox, Trump wants to see Breitbart, The Daily Caller, the Washington Examiner, and probably even The Daily Stormer. Conservatives’ answer to biased media is more biased media.
Trump and conservatives believe everything from the free press to Google to Facebook is biased against them. Trump claims it’s very dangerous. He’s threatening to do something about it which makes him the dangerous one. His top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said the White House is “taking a look” at whether, and how, Google should be regulated by the government, which they would think is a horrible idea if it was proposed by a Democratic president.
Donald Trump is not a fan of free speech or democratic institutions, thus he’s not a fan of America. Regulating free speech so it only pleases one person will be just the beginning of creating an authoritarian regime. The next thing to go will be free elections. If you believe that’s preposterous, just think back to two years ago when the idea of a president proposing regulating speech was preposterous.
Later on Tuesday, Trump said, “Google and Twitter and Facebook, they’re really treading on very, very troubled territory. And they have to be careful. It’s not fair to large portions of the population.” For Trump and Republicans, it’s not fair they have to be subjected to facts.
The facts are Trump is a horrible, dangerous person and a very bad president. If he has it his way, it’ll be illegal for anyone to report it.
Email Clay Jones at [email protected]