The problem with Google News is that it can't discern the difference between an actual news story and PR patter that's released and managed by someone-- usually a hired PR organization. I've already written about political reassessments (Lady Bird Johnson dies, and then is resurrected), scare tactics (Osama Bin Laden somehow clambers out of the ant hill in which he lives and waves his antennae threateningly), and obvious commercial marketing efforts (Harry Potter book and movie will be out some time soon).
Here's one other thing I don't need to read about on Google News:
- Rudolph Giuliani. I couldn't ever understand the complete and instantaneous reassessment of this man after 9/11. He had been going through a difficult, public, and hair-raising divorce, he'd obviously become very wealthy while serving in public office, and had been shown to be an evil, cretinous man who, when his term as mayor was finally term-limited out, would recede back into the woodwork and disappear. Instead, the city he worked for was hit hard by terrorists, hundreds of his employees (you know, the members of the unions he detested!) were killed in the line of duty, and he put on a hardhat and suddenly became a hero! One of my bosses at work even began to carry around a book he co-wrote (with a ghostwriter), about Leadership (with a capital "L") of all things! Uggh! The man is an operator, an opportunist, and a creep. Now we find him, several years later, being talked about as a presidential candidate-- puhleeze! It's possible he could beat Mitt Romney (another cartoon candidate) against a split democratic ticket-- other than that, the guy should just bow to the inevitable, and stop thrashing around on his way to the political dustbin. If there's a story about Rudi on the internet, you can be sure it was posted there by political operatives of one camp or another. He's not a topic, he's a non-topic. Stop writing about him, because no one wants to hear it.
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