Google’s True Colors as Lobbying Goliath Revealed
Sunday’s Washington Post featured a story, “Google, once disdainful of lobbying, now a master of Washington influence” that examined the company’s rise to become a top dog among Washington influence peddlers. For Google watchers revelations in the piece, authored by Tom Hamburger and Matea Gold, come as no surprise. However, for those who continue to regard Google as the web’s guardian angel of “free speech,” the story should add a bit of tarnish to its halo, illuminating the company’s extensive back-door maneuverings — the new normal in DC’s world of political puppeteering.
READ THE FULL POST AT VOXINDIE:
http://voxindie.org/Google-Washington-lobbying-game
The Trichordist 
Report from the field:
I’m seeing blatant Google censorship in the Google Alerts I have set. As a composer, many of my alerts are for other musicians as well as myself. I get almost exclusively alerts about my music being given away at illegal sites. The same is true for the other alerts I have for performing musicians. I never see new recordings on iTunes, CDBaby, or any legitimate places like that come up. This alert system is definitely pushing illegal sites where my music is mislabeled, distorted, truncated and given away for free. You get what you pay for I guess. Bunita Marcus
We are seeing this also. Pirate sites never came in our “camper Van Beethoven” news alerts until recently. Do you know an exact day? we’d like to compare.