Following repeated demonstrations of Google News tab and general search bias, the search giant rolled out a feature to let users pick their own sources. Spoiler: It appears to be window dressing for the same old agenda.
Google announced a new feature on Aug. 12, purportedly allowing users to select their own preferred sources to appear under the “Top Stories” section in Google Search. However, when MRC researchers tested the feature, Google nearly completely failed to deliver on this promise. The search giant provided only one of four chosen popular right-leaning sources covering news of President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Russia. The rest of the page was polluted with left-leaning media publications such as CNN, The New York Times and The Associated Press.
On Friday, MRC researchers put Google's new feature to the test, setting it to preference Fox News, The Daily Mail and The New York Post, all of which rank in the top 20 news sources and are rated right-leaning by AllSides. Although all three of the outlets had recently covered Trump’s impending meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, only one appeared anywhere on the page. In fact, Google failed to show the part of the “Top Stories” section labelled “From your sources” section at all, merely placing a lone Fox News article to compete with nine left-leaning media results and two from the United Kingdom’s state-backed BBC.
MRC researchers also selected NewsBusters as a preference. Not a single NewsBusters story appeared on the first page of results.
