Slashdot Mirror
Google Critic Ousted From Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A researcher at a high-profile Washington, D.C.-think tank, which receives funding from Google, was pushed out after criticizing the company. In June, Barry Lynn, who was a scholar at New America, posted a statement praising the European Union's record $2.7 billion fine against the company. Lynn ran a team, Open Markets, that researched competition policy and was increasingly critical of giants like Google and Amazon. Google executive chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt, criticized Lynn's statement to the think tank's CEO, Anne-Marie Slaughter, according to The New York Times. Schmidt chaired New America until 2016. The think tank has received $21 million from Google and Schmidt's family's foundation since its founding in 1999. The statement reportedly disappeared from the think tank website but returned hours later. According to the Times, word of Schmidt's displeasure spread across the think tank. Slaughter fired Lynn days later, saying in an email obtained by the Times that "the time has come for Open Markets and New America to part ways." Slaughter told Lynn in an email that his firing was "in no way based on the content of your work," but said he was "imperiling the institution as a whole." Lynn told the Times he believed his dismissal was because he criticized Google.
So Google fires a Nazi for giving them bad publicity. So what? They're a private company. They can do what they want. Especially with Nazis.
Oy vey! It's anudda Shoah, I tells ya! Anudda Shoah!
...but not a separate category.
Conservatives love to point out that 75% (or some such) of journalists "lean left" or "identify as liberal" or whatever. It's rarely noted that the people who hire and fire them "lean" way, way conservative. This leaves the journalists "leaning left" inside an Overton Window that's well right of centre. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...)
The Overton Window of this private research group (Isn't "think tank" overdue for the dumpster?) has just been given a clear left-hand frame that's a ways to right of its old position.
But you can't say this group "lacks credibility" in a world where the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute still get on TV, and revolve employees in and out of government jobs in order to cut & paste their papers into legislation that passes. They have enormously more "credibility" than you do.