Slashdot Mirror
MS admits Newsbot Biased Towards MSNBC
JasdonLe writes "According to this article at the Washington Post, Microsoft's recently unleashed news aggregator site, Newsbot will choose to display MSNBC articles over other articles on the same topic.
"As Newsbot resides on MSNBC and is branded as such, MSNBC is considered a first among equals, meaning that if they and another top-tier source offer the same story, information, etc., MSNBC will be listed first, followed by other sources," says Elizabeth Herrera Smith, Microsoft spokeswoman."
Think MSNBC (and Newsbot) will carry THIS story? :)
...first among equals.
In other news, MSNBC reports confirm the sky is blue, cancer is bad, and there's a hidden, lethal chemical in your house, just waiting to kill your children, story at 11.
What's the problem? Don't like it? Then start your own friggin' news aggregator site!
Oh, wait...
never mind...
In other news:
Pope is Catholic
Bear Shits in Woods
what would you expect, for Newsbot to ALWAYS prefer other news organization's stories over MSNBC? Is that "unbiased" enough for you?
No, that would be just as biased in the opposite direction.
The only fair option is for news sources to be arranged in alphabetical order - that way peopl can see immediately that there is no bias in operation.
(Disclaimer: I work for ABC News.) *
* Not actually true
...Slashdot discovers businesses prefer to sell their own products, not their competitors.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
All newsbots are created equal... but some are more equal than others.
An article about biased news sources, posted on Slashdot.