 |
|
Nov. 20, 2009
Nov. 19, 2009
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game
with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf
with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith
with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Nov. 12, 2009
JWisdom.com Does God get tired?
with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven
with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole
in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to
have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How
to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Nov. 5, 2009
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking
Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker
With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater?
With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change
With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Sept. 22, 2008
/ 22 Elul 5768
Google needs to ‘search’ its conscience
By
Kathryn Lopez
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
At first it didn't really bother me, but it became increasingly hard to ignore. On certain relatively slow news days, the bulk of the e-mails I would receive from readers of the National Review's Web site would be about Google, the popular Internet search engine. Specifically, these letters would complain about Google's failure to recognize certain holidays.
Google — if you don't live on the Internet as I do, and thus haven't noticed — tends to change its logo to celebrate special occasions. Google was very into the Olympics in Beijing (and has bent to China's will there, but that's another story). Google was ecstatic when the first day of summer arrived this year. It honored Leap Day on Feb. 29 with a slaphappy portrait of a jumping frog, and duly marked the 50th anniversary of the LEGO brick on Jan. 28. It even celebrated artist Diego Velazquez's birthday in June, and regularly marks geeky anniversaries like the invention of the laser on May 16. So, some ask, why not fly a flag on Memorial Day?
What Google does with its pixels, of course, is not the biggest concern in the world by any stretch, even during a sluggish news cycle. But I increasingly started noting some of the days on which the corporate behemoth opted not to change its logo. Couldn't we at least get a bunny on Easter Sunday? If the likes of Macy's can recognize that holiday without seeming sectarian, why can't Google? I wasn't looking for a resurrected Jesus or even a cross.
This bothered me again this year on Sept. 11. On that particular Thursday, Google's logo went unaltered. If a ton of terrorist attacks had murdered thousands of people on American soil in recent history, I could understand why Google wouldn't change things up for each occasion. But, since there haven't been — and since, on Sept. 10, Google had changed its logo to mark the first test of Europe's Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator, I didn't think that Sept. 11 was too obscure a day to note.
Google, as a private company, certainly has the right to do whatever it wants. I can choose to use another search engine if I'm that annoyed with how it monkeys with its image. But like it or not, it occupies an enormous chunk of American and world culture. To "Google" is a verb that has entered the common lexicon. And with great power comes great responsibility.
Which is why I was delighted to hear Google's new policy on abortion. Shockingly, for a company with such titanic sway, Google has heretofore claimed to be neutral on life-based issues, while actually hewing very stiffly to one side - favoring abortion advocacy and providers. Sued in the United Kingdom by a British group called the Christian Institute, it recently settled out of court and agreed to run abortion-oriented ads from pro-life as well as pro-choice clients.
In April of this year, Google had refused a paid ad from the Christian Institute that said:
"UK Abortion law
Key views and news on abortion law
from The Christian Institute
www.christian.org.uk."
Google had said that its policy was to refuse ads that mixed "abortion and religion-related content." Previously, if you typed the word "abortion" into the company's search engine, the only advertisements that would appear alongside search results would be for abortion clinics and support groups, with nothing from religious groups that oppose abortion and offer alternatives to it.
A spokesman from the company announced, "Over the last few months, we have been reviewing our abortion-ads policy in order to make sure it was fair, up-to-date and consistent with local customs and practices. Following the review we have decided to amend our policy, creating a level playing field and enabling religious associations to place ads on abortion in a factual way."
Whatever Google's executives believed they were doing, their company was choosing sides. And it's too powerful an influence to pretend its choices don't have an impact. If you were in a bind and susceptible to influence, and the only ads you saw were for abortionists, you just might have made a poor choice because of Google's previous policy.
Do I think you'll forget we were attacked on Sept. 11 if a ubiquitous resource doesn't remind you? Of course not. Because of my Google holiday-logo awareness tic, I've been quoted in articles about Google bearing titles like "Does Google Hate America?" I'm sure Google loves this country because America may not run on Dunkin' but Google. But it could afford to give a little in return.
Comment by clicking here.
Archives
© 2008, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
|
|
Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Michael Barone
Dave Barry
Tony Blankley
Andy Borowitz
David Broder
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
John Fund
Frank J. Gaffney
Lloyd Garver
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Lewis Grossberger
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Laura Ingraham
Cheri Jacobus
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Dick Morris
Bill O'Reilly
Jim Mullen
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Jonathan Rauch
Celia Rivenbark
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Culture Shlock
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
Mort Zuckerman
Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
Gary Brookins
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holber
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Ranan R. Lurie
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Ed Stein
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
How 2
Lori Borgman
The Savvy Consumer
Elder matters
Fixit
Dr. Peter Gott
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Tech Maven
Every Monday Matters
Nutrition Myths
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
How Stuff Works
|
