Google Puts 'Gay' Bush-Blair Picture Next to Same-sex Marriage Headline

May 18th, 2008 11:10 AM

Google News early Sunday morning, at its "Top Stories" front page, posted a suggestive Photoshopped picture of President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair next to a headline about the California Supreme Court's recent ruling on same-sex marriages.

In the picture, Bush and a shirtless Blair are cuddling underneath an American flag.

Accident? Something to do with Google's auto-generation software program?

Maybe. But consider as you examine the following screencap that the article the picture came from wasn't even one of the featured stories (link to larger more legible version here):

Let's add to the mystery, shall we?

The Washington Post article prominently featured was published around midnight Saturday, and is actually in Sunday's paper. Ditto the San Francisco Chronicle piece. And the San Jose Mercury article. And the LA Times, NY Times, and Boston Globe.

Yet, as you can see from the screencap, not only isn't there a link in the articles section for the website OverTheTop, but also the posting this picture comes from was published on Friday, May 16.

In addition, if you click on the "3,978 news articles" link sorted by relevance, the OverTheTop piece is seemingly irrelevant as it is buried pages into the search.

So, why would Google News so prominently place a picture from a two-day old article that it wasn't either featuring at its front page or displaying as relevant?