In defense of Google

In an article published in The Nation this week, media reform advocate Jeffrey Chester decries Google's recent purchase of YouTube as part of a larger conspiracy among huge media corporations to dominate the Web, keep tabs on consumers and in the process, "undermine our ability to create a civil and just society."

While I worry about the excesses of corporations -- especially big media corporations -- I think the author is oversimplifying the situation and blindly lumping Google in with other corporate media giants who very much do pose a serious threat to freedom of information, decent journalism and, many would argue, democracy itself.

While Google, Inc. brought in over $5 billion in revenue last year and is by no means a Mom-and-pop operation, it remains something of an anti-corporation. Comparing Google with the likes of Fox, as Chester does, is a huge, huge stretch.

Commentators on the left (or anywhere, really) have every reason to be wary of Rupert Murdoch and his ruthless media empire.

The line between Google and News Corporation is easy to draw.

News Corp is best known for its 24-hour cable news channel, Fox News Channel, which acts as an aggressive and very effective propaganda agent for the American conservative political establishment. As far as journalism and information are concerned, Rupert Murdoch got his start pushing supermarket tabloids and now owns 175 newspapers, all of which editorialized in favor of the Iraq war in 2003. And then there's Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.

Google, on the other hand, was founded under a mantra of "Don't Be Evil" which is the strict, if informal, corporate philosophy under which the company operates as it fulfills its self-declared mission to organize all of the world's information and make it as widely available as possible.

The company insists on operating in an objective and unbiased manner, not accepting monetary offers for better search rankings. According to Wikipedia, "the company holds themselves to journalistic standards and ethics even when they could earn more money in the short term by violating those standards."

Jeffrey goes into the dangers of media consolidation and net neutrality, which are extremely important issues, but it is a mistake to assume that Google is playing the same role as Comcast in these matters. Just because Google is big doesn't mean Google is bad.

Indeed, Google has been at the forefront of the effort to promote net neutrality and has vigorously refused to hand over search records of its users to the federal government.

If you're like me, you've got a few gigabytes of personal data stored in your Gmail account, your financial records tracked via Google Spreadsheets, all your whereabouts mapped out in Google Maps, and keep a daily "to do" list on your Personalized Google Homepage.

In this 'age of information,' if we're going to live in a society owned and run by really big companies, we should be glad we have the likes of Google among our options.