Originally Posted - January 20, 2007

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Google is at it again.

What?

Censorship.

For over a year, Google has been systematically censoring articles published at The North Country Gazette news site related to the Schiavo case, particularly articles critical of Judge George Greer and Michael Schiavo.

The most recent victim of the Google News censorship was "Schiavo Triangle", an article published Thursday, Jan. 18, revealing the highly unethical ex parte communications and alleged collusion between the judge in the Schiavo case, Pinellas County probate court judge Greer; George Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo who had petitioned the court to kill his wife by removing all food and water from her, and Dr. Peter Bambakidis, the supposed independent expert medical witness, chosen by Greer, who testified at the medical evidentiary hearing in October, 2002.

Throughout the pendency of the Schiavo case, from 1998 when Schiavo first filed his petition with the court seeking permission to remove his wife's feeding tube in order to cause her death, until she died on March 31, 2005, in undoubtedly the most prolonged public execution in history, there has been media bias. For essentially the first 8 to 10 years of the case, the only coverage of the case was provided by the St. Petersburg Times which exuded a pro-Michael Schiavo slant. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/021606MediaBias.html

Arthur Caplan , a right to die proponent and one of the most outspoken advocates to kill Terri Schindler Schiavo, did his best to taint the media, appearing on MSNBC, advocating Terri's death, appearing before the House Judiciary Committee to testify against a federal review, testifying against House Bill 1151. "The Incapacitated Persons Legal Protectuon Act" would have allowed federal intervention in cases like Terri Schiavo's where state courts have ruled in favor of terminating life support and where there is a conflict among parties.

Caplan was frequently quoted by the St. Petersburg Times, a newspaper which has long engaged in slanting public opinion towards Michael Schiavo and away from Terri's right to live and her parents' decade-long battle to simply take her home and care for her. The Times stroked George Greer, trying to improve his image; preened George Felos and pampered Michael Schiavo. The Times wasn't engaged in reporting the news impartially, they were Michael Schiavo's unpaid public relations agency with Schiavo's biggest fan Caplan being his spokesman along with Schiavo attorney who engages in "soul speak" and has admitted both homicidal and suicidal tendencies.

The Times brags about doing investigative work. Where was their unbiased investigation of the Schiavo case and why didn't they pressure Pinellas state attorney Bernie McCabe to act, or now governor Charlie Crist in his role as attorney general. Arthur Caplan was one of the perpetrators and advancers of the mainstream media bias in the Schaivo case, spewing forth erroneous information and tainting public opinion against Terri--her right to live, her will to live.

But then there's the rest of the story. What the St. Petersburg Times and Caplan didn't disclose is that Caplan is a member of the advisory board of the Poynter Institute of St. Petersburg, owner of the St. Petersburg Times.

According to Poynter, "members of the board help guide the work of the Institute by reviewing and giving reaction to its programs and plans, and through analysis of important developments and issues in journalism…." like swaying public opinion.

Judge Greer authorized the use of monies from Terri's trust fund, earmarked by a jury to be used for her rehabilitation and therapy for her brain injuries, to instead be used by Michael Schiavo and George Felos to attempt to taint the press and present the Felos slant to media coverage of the Schiavo case. Felos was allowed to bill the trust fund for his highly biased and insipid news conferences about the case. The Schindler family was forced to use their own monies and their own resources and then were repeatedly accused of being mercenary in their efforts to save their daughter's life.

Network news and national newspapers including the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times consistently misreporting and misstating the medical facts of the Terri Schindler Schiavo case.

Terri's father, Robert Schindler Sr., observed that "the media's killing us, and they're killing her, frankly". Terri was not comatose or not in a coma as was consistently falsely reported, and still is today. Despite statements from nearly 50 neurologists and doctors, Terri was not in a persistent vegetative state, despite Greer's ruling based on the heavily biased testimony of three of five doctors, but rather a minimally conscious state, with doctors stating under oath in written affidavits that she was responsive, tried to follow commands and was alert, contrary to Felos' public pronouncement that she was a "houseplant".

Terri was not dependent on life support and was not dying by natural causes prior to the removal of her feeding tube.

The effect of dehydration and starvation on Terri was no different than denying fluids and nutrition to the most 'healthy' person."

After Terri's initial collapse, she was continually denied rehabilitative therapy that may have given her the ability to swallow on her own. This denial of therapy created a dependence on the feeding tube. Medical experts testified that Terri might still have been a good candidate for being weaned from the feeding tube, but she was denied this opportunity for therapy by her "loving" husband, Michael Schiavo.

Writing for Accuracy In Media, Cliff Kincaid's article regarding "Media Bias in the Schiavo Case", points out that "Opponents of Terri Schiavo's right to life had to have been happy with media coverage of the case. First, there was the "GOP Talking Points" memo that made Republicans look bad by depicting their interest in the case as completely partisan. That was seized upon by many media organizations, even though there was never any proof that Republican Senators had even read it. Second, there was heavy publicity given to a flawed ABC News poll finding that 63 percent of people said they supported the decision to remove Schiavo's feeding tube and 70 percent were opposed to congressional involvement. Columnist Michelle Malkin was among those noting that respondents were given misleading information about Terri's status and fate. Mickey Kaus of Slate.com said the poll was badly worded and biased". http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/2850_0_2_0_C/

"The point is that polls can provide different answers depending on the information in the questions", Kincaid said. "Of course, the strange irony is that the media claimed that the Republicans were exploiting the case for political gain, even though the ABC poll showed that the Republican position was unpopular. Perhaps that meant that the poll was indeed flawed.

"It's true that other polls showed similar results. But we did not see one poll that asked people if they were aware that Congress was giving Schiavo's parents the simple right to have a federal review of the facts of the case. That's something that the liberals have guaranteed to convicted killers on death row. In fact, the taxpayers provide the lawyers for these killers in the federal courts if they cannot afford one".

And there lies the total hypocrisy in the whole issue. There has been an enormous public outcry, fueled by media reports, about the use of lethal injections to execute convicted killers. Florida's Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all executions as did the state of California and this past weekend, the state of Ohio also suspended three scheduled executions until "more investigation" could be done.

There is rage that a convicted killer might have been subjected to "cruel and inhumane" punishment in Florida because it took 34 minutes for him to die under lethal injection". Where was this indignation and media outcry in March 2005 when the feeding tube of a innocent, helpless disabled woman was removed, all food and water ordered withheld from her and it took 13 days---not minutes, not hours---13 days for her to die of dehydration and starvation while the whole world watched---while George Felos was paid by her trust fund to try to convince the world how beautiful she looked in death in her "death process", describing her prolonged death by dehydration was "calm, peaceful and gentle".

In his article "The ABC's of Media Bias", written for the Weekly Standard, Fred Barnes address the infamous memo that argued that Republicans stood to gain politically by saving the life of Terri Schiavo, characterized by ABC News as consisting of "GOP Talking Points".

Barnes says that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a physician much maligned by the Michael Schiavo camp for his efforts to save Terri's life and his determination after reviewing videotapes that she was not in a persistent vegetative state as claimed, had no knowledge of the memo at the time.

Barnes that many of the Republican leaders never saw the infamous memo including Senate Republican whip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, then number three Republican in the Senate nor did the senator with the closest relationship with President Bush, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire. Barnes says that Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina never saw it nor did Sen. Mel Martinez from Florida. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/406istku.asp

"True, a few paragraphs were of Republican origin" Barnes says. "They had been lifted, word for word, from a Martinez press release outlining the provisions of his legislative proposal, "The Incapacitated Person's Legal Protection Act." This was the inoffensive part of the memo. The offensive part--it didn't come from Martinez--left the strong impression that Republicans are callous and cynical in their attempt to save Schiavo's life, ill-motivated in the extreme.

"So rather than an example of aggressive reporting, the memo story turns out to be yet another instance of crude liberal bias, in this case against both Republicans and those who fought to have Schiavo's feeding tube restored. Naturally the memo had a second life when the story was picked up by other news outlets, pundits, and columnists. How did ABC and others get wind of the memo in the first place? It came from "Democratic aides," according to the New York Times, who "said it had been distributed to Senate Republicans." Not exactly a disinterested source.

Google News has censored other NCG articles and opinion pieces in the Schiavo case, particularly articles involving Gov. Bush and President Bush.

When NCG prepared a commentary entitled "Word Games" comparing Michael Schiavo and former President Bill Clinton and their problem with definitions of words concerning sexual relationships and the issue of perjury, Google News refused to index it. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/071006WordGames.html

When the North Country Gazette published an analysis of misrepresentations made by Michael Schiavo and alleged false testimony, Google News censored again, refusing to index the article so that it would circulated in its search engine, attempting to restrict reader's access to and knowledge of the article.

Google News also refused to index an editorial about George Greer, published in January, 2006 entitled "George Greer Take of Liberty, Not Defender", http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/010506LibertyTaker.html and censored the May, 2006 commentary, "Schiavo Judge Commits Judicial Foul". http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/050306JudicialFoul.html

Certain websites are having their Internet presence diminished at the hands of what has been labeled Google's "progressive ideological agenda" and it appears that Google certainly has a ideological agenda in the Schiavo case parallel to that of Felos and other euthanasia advocates. When NCG publishes articles opposing euthanasia and in particular when it published its extensive, widely read series, "Myra Christopher: Euthanasia and the Healthcare Connection" written by registered nurse Karen Ward, Google removed all of its Google ads from any pages on which the articles appeared.

Google's censorship hasn't been constrained only to the Schiavo case. Frank Salvato of the New Media Journal summed it up succinctly last May at his newsite after Google had banished him by stating "Google News and Google Search Engine are on a campaign of political correctness that sees them denying access to any website, be it news, opinion or a hybrid of both, that dares to address the subject of radical Islam". http://newsbusters.org/node/5501 and http://newsbusters.org/node/5477

Frequent visitors to the NCG site present IP numbers registered to Google Inc., such as this 64.233.172.28 which was on the NCG site, with a Google search of "Michael Schiavo 1-20", reading www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/012106WeddingBells.html at 1:39 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, just minutes before "The Schiavo Triangle" was posted.

Statistical information of NCG reveals that Google Inc. are frequent readers at NCG, primarily information pertaining to its publisher and in particular, articles regarding the Schiavo case.

After Google's visit to the NCG site, stories published at the same time as "Schiavo Triangle" were indexed and appeared in Google News, albeit not under North Country Gazette, but "Schiavo Triangle" seemingly was intentionally not indexed and does not appear in Google News. Two days after it's initial publication, the article was shown in the Google search engine.

Seth Finkelstein has undertaken an extensive review and analysis of "Google Censorship-How It Works" which is published here. http://sethf.com/anticensorware/general/google-censorship.php This report describes the system by which results in the Google search engine are suppressed.

He notes that "contrary to earlier utopian theories of the Internet, it takes very little effort for governments to cause certain information simply to vanish for a huge number of people".

"Google is arguably the world's most popular search engine", Finkelstein writes. "However, contrary perhaps to a naive impression, in some cases the results of a search are affected by various government-related factors. That is, search results which may otherwise be shown, are deliberately excluded. The suppression may be local to a country, or global to all Google results.

Finkelstein says that "When Google "removes" material, often it is still in the Google index itself. But the post-processing has removed it from any results shown to the user. This system can be applied, for quality reasons, to remove sites which "spam" the search engine. And that is, by volume, certainly the overwhelming application of the mechanism. But it can also be directed against sites which have been prohibited for government-based reasons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google

Interestingly enough, Wikipedia has also been found to censor information concerning the Schiavo case, allowing anyone to edit an entry in pages concerning the Schiavo case so that Schiavo supporters and Wikipedia can control what is made available to public about the case at that website. Links to The North Country Gazette and its extensive Schiavo case file have been removed from Wikipedia, in particular just recently an article entitled "Follow the Money" which revealed the numerous conflicts of interest in the Schiavo case and questioned the sealing of the financial records in the case. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/040906SchiavoRecords.html

The public has a right to review all of the information about the Schiavo case, not just that which supports the pro-euthanasia position of George Felos, Michael Schiavo and others including the information being presented by The North Country Gazette that was never revealed by the mainstream media. The public has the right to make their own determination and decisions about the Schiavo case, not to have Google or anyone else try to manipulate what the public sees and hear in an effort to manipulate public opinion.

It was recently reported that a Chinese activist lawyer has been convicted of subversion for posting political essays on foreign Web sites. He received a suspended three year prison sentence. The lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, was detained last summer during a crackdown on Chinese lawyers who represent clients with grievances against the government regarding corruption, land seizures and other complaints.

He was convicted for posting nine articles posted on web sites. The articles allegedly "defamed and made rumors about China's current government and social system, conspiring to topple down the regime".

Gao will be under government supervision for five years and if he breaks the law during that period, the three year sentence will be reinstated. He was also stripped of political rights for one year, including rights to free speech and the ability to gather or protest.

Google and China have become entangled in their own censorship war with Google deciding to censor its Internet search service in China. Many users began calling for a boycott of Google and urging investors to sell their Google stock. One conservative blogger, says that Google had a moral duty not to bow to China's wishes. "I remember when Google first came online. Google had a free spirit about it", blogger Randy Thomas said. "Now they're turning into a corporation that's in it for the money….I just think it's a travesty that Google would sell out".The Boston Globe - Google China Censorship Fuels Calls For US Boycott

Although claiming that it supports the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment which guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of expression, it would certainly appear that Google itself is seriously engaged in censorship, seeking to keep the public from reading not only allegations, but substantiating evidence regarding government corruption and collusion, particularly that which appears to have existed in the Terri Schiavo case, which caused the death of an innocent disabled woman and set the stage for the mass killing of the disabled and elderly in America.

North Country Gazette 1-20-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette