The Nation: Googlebomb This! (The Five Stages of Republican Grief Online)

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 09/10/2007 @ 12:05am
Googlebomb This! (The Five Stages of Republican Grief Online)
Ari Melber



Are you getting biased information when you Google for political news?

Last election, Democratic bloggers "Google bombed" dozens of Republican candidates, which pushed negative news articles higher in their search results. This worries National Review's Mark Hemingway (of Supreme Court "sissy mary" fame), who argues that Democrats are winning the "arms race" of Internet activism. His new article, Google Gap, sounds the alarm. Hemingway makes a good case study for the five stages of grief that Republicans experience when pondering Democratic dominance online: anxiety, adoration, outrage, denial, and finally, reversion to rivalry. It's a kick to watch him bare his nervous, partisan soul.

Hemingway begins, predictably, with anxious anonymous complaints: "some would say is insidious." (I wonder who?) Then he lauds the Internet's big impact: "there's no way to quantify the contribution of Google bombing to the Democrats' electoral success," but it surely "can't be discounted." And you knew it was coming – those outrageous blogger ethics: "The liberal blogosphere … few if any ethical qualms" about Google bombing. Then Hemingway turns to the cold comfort of denial: "Few Google bombs make it to the top result where they could have the most impact," and experts say many of these efforts are "almost completely worthless."

So what is the upshot to all this grief?

Republicans should use the Internet like Democrats, of course! (The rivalry stage.) "Republicans are outmatched when it comes to tapping the resources of the Internet for political gain," Hemingway concludes, and then passes the mic to a Republican operative, who ends the article calling on his party to embrace "a more effective Internet strategy going into 2008." This would presumably include Google bombing.

Put the grief aside, though, and it's clear that Hemingway really doesn't get Internet. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=231039

[displacedtexan]

1. Almost completely worthless?

So, why is he whining?

Asshat.

[Demeter]

2. Like We Have Nothing Better To Do Than Google Stuff?

These people really ought to get a reality check.

[Hissyspit]

3. I have to admit, I STILL don't get googlebombing.

When you google 'miserable failure' and it brings up George W. Bush's official page, what exactly is it that people have done to make it happen and how many people doing it does it take?

[NewJeffCT]

5. googlebombing is a bit different than that

If you did a google search on a Congressional candidate, say Chris Shays of Connecticut, and he was effectively "google bombed" then on the first page of the google search, you would get some negative articles on Shays. That way, if an undecided person decides to look up information on Shays, he or she would get several negative articles on Shays, rather than just the normal "puff pieces" that would make up the normal top 10 for a Congressperson.

[flyingfysh]

4. Googlebombs don't work any more

Google changed their system, so we no longer get the Bush site by googling "miserable failure".

[niceypoo]

6. Republicans don't reap the full political benifits of the internet because...

..they have doubts as to their own beliefs. The only sources they have are right wing and opinion based. Republicans have a very, very hard time sourcing their BS. I spent a lot of time debating them in political chatrooms and the liberals routinely gave good sources to back their positions wherein the republicans almost never did, instead relying on easliy shredded, shallow talking points. They were embarassed because their sources were highly partisan, extremely slanted and generally laughable. They usually resorted to attacking the messenger or petty bickering.

[Supersedeas]

8. we aren't talking about mainstream R's, but the party Elite and their worker bees

[Bitwit1234]

7. What they want to do

is try to make people think the information on the internet is biased. And once they take it over like they have, radio, newspapers, network and cable and can spread their propaganda they will then think the internet is a wonderful source of info.