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MySpace Takes on Google News and Digg
cyberianpan writes "According to a Times Online article, MySpace is going into the news business. They'll soon be premiering a service that will scour the internet for news stories and let users vote on which ones receive the most exposure. This approach blends elements of Google News and sites such as Digg and Netscape, which rely on readers to submit stories and determine their prominence. One could see where this might be the 'holy grail' of internet news. Not only will you be able to tap into the wisdom of the crowds, but ultimately your recommended stories could be influenced by the likes and dislikes of your friends/heroes."
I submitted this same story earlier this morning but it was voted down to black in the firehose almost instantly. Probably because of the negative spin I gave it. Well, I'm not afraid of losing karma so I'll spout my ramblings in a post instead.
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Rupert Murdoch owns News Corporation, a conglomerate business that, among other things, owns many news sources. MySpace is a division of News Corp as well as Fox News, The Sun, The Australian, SmartSource, The Times, New York Post, News of the World, etc.
Something interesting about Rupert Murdoch is his political leanings are often reflected in all of the divisions of his corporation. Guess why 175 of his editors favored the Iraq war.
Call me a conspiracy theorist or whatever you need to call me in order to ignore one nagging issue--is it really that safe to have so many different news sources coming from really the same man? The worst part is that there is no perceived relation between the New York Post and Fox News yet they are basically one and the same in how they spin their news on partisan issues. It's the same in Great Britain & Australia. I don't even care that he's predominantly conservative in his views, I just care that if he decided to back any candidate (possibly even Hillary Clinton) that suddenly that candidate is favored in many news sources. He's making political decisions that impact the world and he's not an elected politician.
I fear that if MySpace is edited at all by hand or by automation, it will favor articles that favor his candidates--in exactly the same way he has been running his newspapers and TV news. Beware your free and capitalist media, America because it looks as though a single man has a growing monopoly on it
My work here is dung.
Whenever possible I try to go with a reputable news source's version of the story. 99.99% of the time, if the link goes to the Heath Ledger Times Star Jones Dispatch, it's really just a copy of the AP or Reuters news wire. If I'm going to get that I might as well get it from the Washington Post or New York Times (especially since I've already sold my soul and possess the Devil's Cookie on my system anyway).
I've also got NoScript on my FireFox, which limits some of the worst abuses that a web page can throw at me.