Google Denies Popular Conservative Website a Place in News Results

Already under intense fire for their systematic bias against conservative media and conservative personalities, Google is once again facing criticism for rejecting a popular website a place in its Google News search results. This week, it was reported that Google rejected an application from The Gateway Pundit, a website that, while not without controversy, is certainly not the kind of “fake news” that Silicon Valley is trying to crack down on.

This is a site that has White House press credentials, original reporting, and hundreds of thousands of mainstream followers. Whether its vicious take on conservative news is your cup of tea or not, it deserves a place in any right-leaning news feed. And Google is only harming their own users by denying it a place in their search results.

From Breitbart News:

In an email to the Gateway Pundit, Google claimed that it could not provide specific reasons why the site had been rejected. Instead, the tech giant provided two “common reasons for rejection,” although it would not say if they were the actual reasons the conservative website was rejected.

Per Google’s rules, publishers must submit an application to have their site appear in Google News search results. Once rejected, a publisher must wait 60 days before applying again.

The Gateway Pundit published the email sent to them by Google, which provided little clarity as to why their application was rejected:

“While we can’t provide specific feedback for publishers seeking inclusion, here are the top 3 most common reasons for rejection,” the tech giant wrote.

“Unoriginal content: Google News values original reporting. If your site shows syndicated content, make sure it’s properly attributes and makes up less than 50% of the content on your site. Advertising and other paid promotional material on your pages should not exceed your content,” they wrote.

“Unclear ownership or authorship: Google News strives to show readers news from transparent sites with verifiable author information. Make sure site ownership, mission, and contact information (such as email and physical addresses and phone numbers) are available. Articles should display author information,” they continued.

None of these criteria would seem to hinder The Gateway Pundit, which has reams of verified original reporting, clear ownership, and readily available information on the various reporters. That would seem to indicate that Google’s decision to reject their application for inclusion was indeed based on editorial discretion; i.e., they don’t like what The Gateway Pundit is publishing.

Which hey, it’s Google’s party and they can do what they like. But eventually, the general public may get fed up with the “Masters of the Universe” (as Breitbart likes to call them) presenting themselves as the arbiters of what information gets through…and what information gets swept under the rug.