'Partisan Garbage:' Google 'Fact'-Checker Targets Conservative Sites
01-11-2018
Google, the most powerful search engine in the world is now "fact checking" many conservative websites, but very few liberal ones.
The system began last year but seems to have flown under the radar until it got the attention of conservative websites this week.
Google searches of websites such as Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller, Breitbart, and The Federalist display a sidebar module on the right with two columns. One is labeled "Writes About" and the other "Reviews Claimed" with links to other sites that attempt to refute or debunk the articles on the conservative site.
Partisan Left-wing websites such as Daily Kos, Mother Jones and Alternet are not fact-checked. Neither are other prominent liberal sites like Slate, Salon or Huffington Post.
CBN News, Fox News, National Review and the conspiracy site Infowars are also not getting the fact-checking treatment by Google.
Not only is the fact-checking highly partisan, but tests by a number of websites confirm that it is also often wrong.
The respected media blog Mediaite says Google "has a lot of explaining to do."
It points out that Slate, which is not being fact-checked, reported incorrectly that the Trump organization's private server was "communicating with Russia" during the election and falsely claimed that Kellyanne Conway suggested that men "don't want their wives to work in the White House."
The conservative Federalist website, which is being fact-checked, dismissed the Google "fact-checking" feature as "partisan garbage."
