Steve H. at Little Tiny Lies has a post about how the IndyMedia mess over at Google News has spilled over to the other side. The American Daily site that he occasionally post to has been removed by Google News, presumably in a deliberately targeted campaign by the IndyMedia folks still smarting over their recent banishment.
As Steve points out, this was inevitable, but in a way sad. Google News has the potential to be a great service, and many would argue that it already is. The makeup of the service could be the next battlefield in the left vs. right battle for the hearts and minds of the news consuming audience. The left has had its way for a long time, but with the forces of the blogosphere on the case it could turn into an ugly campaign (on both sides) to silence the other.
The problem with the Internet and Google specifically, is that unless you are out there for the world to easily find you don’t exist. If you are or aspire to be a news outlet (regardless of the left/right slant) Google News listing is pretty much a requirement. If you don’t exist there, do you really exist?
