This story is old news in some ways. Google’s coercive manipulation of search results has been well-known, well-documented and much discussed since the company began more than two decades ago. But this being an election year, reminders of perfidy among our main providers of political information deserve resurrection.
This reminder is of particular interest because it is one of those things you can prove for yourself at your own on-ramp to the information superhighway.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
Kind of sad. Always some sort of conspiracy theory to explain why reality does not seem to overlap much with the Trump propaganda bubble.
The author in this case is disturbed because he wants to believe that Joe Biden is in the grip of dementia. And, gosh, it is hard to find supporting evidence using Google. There are two explanations for that finding. One is that Google is hiding such evidence. The other is that there is not much evidence to support it. Hmm. Which makes more sense?
Apparently the irony of supporting Trump and pushing such a dementia claim is lost on this writer.
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…” the irony of supporting Trump and pushing such a dementia claim is lost on this writer.”
Or on the one who posted the link.
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RE: “The author in this case is disturbed because he wants to believe that Joe Biden is in the grip of dementia.”
What is your motive for practicing psychoanalysis without a license?
The facts of the article are straightforward and of limited scope. They don’t support your wild speculations.
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With all due respect, and I will try to stay polite, your post does not make a lot of sense.
The sentence you quote does not require psychoanalysis. It is the clear implication of the author’s words. He starts with a strong statement of an “alternative fact” – that there are “concerns about Joe Biden’s declining mental state.” Uh, no there are not. That is just more of Trump slinging mud at wall to see what might stick. Then, having started from that he goes on to claim that Google is deliberately making it hard for people to investigate that “fact”. See, not a drop of pyscho-analysis required.
Second, what “wild speculations” are you referring to? It cannot be my first paragraph. It is not a “speculation” that the GOP of Trump has made conspiracy theories their go to response to the corruption, treachery and incompetence that oozes out of the administration every day. It is ALWAYS somebody else responsible – not them.
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RE: “The sentence you quote does not require psychoanalysis. It is the clear implication of the author’s words.”
The explicit “implication of the author’s words” is to show that Google processes searches in a manipulative way. Guessing at what the author “wants to believe” is irrelevant psychobabble.
RE: “Second, what ‘wild speculations’ are you referring to?”
The one stated is one. Your fantasy about conspiracy theories being related to the AT story is another, since the writer doesn’t mention any.
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The author doesn’t mention any conspiracy theory?
Uh, the whole article is based on the premise that Google is clandestinely aiding the Biden campaign by hiding the truth about his mental health.
“conspiracy theory : a belief that some covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event.”
This baloney about what Google is doing comes pretty close to that definition.
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RE: “Uh, the whole article is based on the premise that Google is clandestinely aiding the Biden campaign by hiding the truth about his mental health.”
There’s your problem right there. The premise of the article is that Google processes search terms related to Biden in an unusual way. The article doesn’t speculate about Googles’ motives as you do, but notes that the effect of Google’s manipulative algorithms is comparable to “in-kind campaign donation.”
That’s a reasonable observation that falls short of claiming a conspiracy. Once again, you are tilting at windmills.
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Mr. Roberts, I am not speculating about what the author thinks is going on. He thinks that Google is giving Biden an in kind campaign contribution. He makes that belief crystal clear …
“You can read here my September 14 post about how Google’s search engine, which accounts for at least 80% of all internet searches, gives Biden an in-kind campaign donation by discouraging inquiries into his possible dementia.”
You ignore that and take away ONLY that Google handles searches for Biden in “an unusual way.” Oh really? Is that all? Then what is the point of the article in a political journal if this “unusual way” is NOT intended to help Biden? A mere curiosity?
Of course, the whole article is hokum. More of the phony baloney poor little abused Trump supporters victim card playing which – as I pointed out at the beginning – is because reality does not match very well with the fantasy world inside the Trump propaganda bubble.
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I did a Google search for “Biden dementia”.
I got pages and pages of articles, opinions and fact checks about Biden’s mental health.
If AT could not find anything then the writer may have issues himself.
Search for “Trump dementia” and lots of links pop up including the report that he passed a test.
Sooo, WTF is AT trying to say?
In my opinion, the whining, incessant I might add, by conservatives and unfair treatment by social media is pure crap.
Trumps playbook is simple, confuse the Americans.
“ ‘You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.’”
Social media is so unfair. Don’t believe anything they say.
Covfefe
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“Covfefe”
As they say in Sweden : Gesundheit!
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Swedish has a lot of words from a German, French and Yiddish.
But “gesundheit” is strictly German. Swedes say “prosit”.
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It’s something my son has adopted in response to a sneeze.
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RE: “I got pages and pages of articles, opinions and fact checks about Biden’s mental health.”
You didn’t replicate the procedures the article describes. Go back and read more carefully, especially the discussion of Google’s autocomplete feature.
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In kind donations by the MSM for Biden are far more prevalent, overt and disgusting. Glorifying Biden, fostering divisive “systemic racism” as a provable fact, not bothering to ask Biden or Harris any difficult questions, nightly doses of “bad Trump”, glorifying rioters, arsonists and looters as peaceful protesters, the subtle inference that white males are evil and owe everyone else, you know, left wing trash that isn’t even remotely balanced. And lefties have an “excuse” for all of it to attempt to justify it?
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I know that you just hate it, but reality has a definite progressive bias. Unlike Trump propaganda media, most of the MSM reports on reality more or less as it actually is.
The fantasy world of Trump is pretty much divorced from reality – he is, after all, a full fledged disaster for our country, our Constitution and the rule of law. So those who really, really want to believe him and the world of magic and miracles he sells are always going to be unhappy with anyone reporting of the truth. Even Fox News felt the wrath of such folks when the other day they confirmed the MSM reporting that Trump has referred to fallen servicemen as “suckers” and “losers.”
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This is the typical left wing extremist phony propaganda. “They” did not confirm squat, in fact “they” contend that Griffin hadn’t confirmed anything. Just a reporter saying what a couple of unspecified ex-officials said could have happened. And then we have Bolton who was present throwing the BS flag on the whole thing. Honestly, you guys make up crap, sling it at the wall and repeat it daily even after being debunked. Emotional dependence at work…
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That’s not honest. It’s been shown to be false by people that were there. Even Goldberg had to walk it back. Why do you post things that aren’t true?
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Because he is a left wing extremist disinformation troll, that’s why. Their only weapon is to spread incendiary nonsense hoping to fool their social justice sheep and get a rise out of the adults. Simply pathetic really.
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LOL!
Sure Fox News walked back the reporting ON FOX NEWS that confirmed the story that Trump privately expressed those negative sentiments about fallen Americans – “suckers” and “losers.” Very likely, they got a call from the White House to do so.
The story of Trump’s disdain for the military – reported by numerous outlets – had particular traction because it is consistent with Trump’s many public utterances of disrespect for the military, its heroes and its leaders. It is also consistent with his complete passivity in the face of Russia promising bounties on dead American soldiers.
I wonder, is there ANYTHING that “conservatives” once believed in that they still stand for when Trump goes a different way?
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Murphy
Hey Einstein, in case you missed it Goldberg does not work for Fox news. He himself said it was probably not true and your hero Bolton said the same thing as well as others that were there. You really need to get some help.
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You folks think I should “get some help” but at least I do not plunge into emotional hissy fits when the reality-based media – including the most respected and awarded journalistic organizations in the world – reports on the news. And sadly, it was not even “news.” Trump’s disrespect for the military is all over his public record.
Facts seem to really upset some people. It is a fact that a Fox News reporter broadcast a report to say that her contacts in the Trump administration also confirmed the essence of that story you do not like – that Trump privately expresses disdain for those who have served. Did she lie?
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