The Daily Novel

In the world of blogging journalism Google as powerful, or much more powerful, than W H Smith was for British newspapers and magazines. W H Smith was not only the largest chain of newsagents in the country, it dominated the wholesale distribution of newspapers and magazines. The nation had reason to be grateful to the high principled Smith family, because they protected the nation’s children by never stocking pornography. For that you had to go the sleazy newsagent in a sidestreet, and reach up to the top shelf.

But Smith’s also used their considerable marketing power to keep adventurous magazines which were challenging the conventional wisdom, like the satirical magazine, Private Eye, and ‘extreme’ left-wing publications, like the Socialist Worker, off their shelves. Which was of course a form of censorship.

Google as the dominant search engine has equivalent power. What their blacking means is that when my American readers key in ‘Obama left handedness’ they cannot read what I have said on this subject, because they are routed to the warning notice from Google. So Google is in fact violating my rights of free speech and my opportunity, via the internet, to have  my say on what is the most important American election of my lifetime.

Although, as I have disclosed as soon as I found it, there were the two questionable programs on my computer, they were not having any effect on my computer, nor on the computer of anyone else I know who has read my blog.

But when I go into newspaper web sites I frequently find annoying popup ads interupting my reading of the article I want to read. Notable offenders are The Times of London and the New York Times. Why doesn’t Google black them?

To return to the general issue. The web makes it possible for the citizen journalist to broadcast his views, but the chances of his getting heard are still very small, given the increasing domanance of the web by the big media groups. Google has a most important role in redressing the balance. And mostly they do that job well enough.

I am not sure how their ranking system works, but it does not seem to discriminate against the lone blogger. Thus, when you key in ‘Obama left hand’, my blog, written on 22 February, is number six of 388,000 references. (Now disfigured by the red ink telling you it may seriously damage your health!)

It is a myth that citizen journalists are powerful. That myth was fuelled by James Murdoch, Rupert’s little boy, in an article in yesterday’s Guardian. This is his opening paragraph:

We are in the middle of a tremendous and welcome shift in power - from elites to individuals and communities. For the media, that means a shift from content controlled by a few to that created, adapted, or distributed by a multitude.

Lower down there is this paragraph:

For many years, Britain had a vibrant and diverse newspaper sector but a stagnant dominant television oligopoly.

Young James writes without any awareness of the fact that his grandad, was a member of the Australian elite, and his fdad, Rupert, was a member of the British elite, tutored by Asa Briggs at Oxford, and taught the British newspaper trade by Ted Pickering at the Daily Express, which was then one of Britain’s most powerful newspapers.

Rupert Murdoch has made the British newspaper industry less diverse. He took over one of only two left wing national papers, The Sun, previously known as The Daily Herald. He converted The Sun to a tabloid and knocked the Mirror off its perch as the biggest mass circulation newspaper, a blow from which it has still not recovered. There is now only one left of centre newspaper, The Guardian, which has a big enough staff to cover international affairs properly.

Murdoch also controls, of course, The Times, and Sky Television, Fox Television in the US and Star in the east. His newspapers and television stations reflect his right wing, anti Europe and born again Christian views. From time to time he supports Labour Party leaders, but he uses his influence to pull them to the right. As he did with Tony Blair and still does with Gordon Brown, who spends more time talking to Murdoch’s men, than he does to trade unionists.

Much of today’s media is controlled by a few big companies, including media on the web, to which all the media groups devote huge resources, far beyond the pockets of citizen journalists.

Google, because of the brilliance of its technical expertise, is in an unrivalled position, to help counteract the power of Murdoch, and the other media barons. They should be using it to promote freedom of speech, not to limit it.