Google Bias Cartoons

Google VP grilled in hearing over alleged bias against conservatives, as slain reporter's father calls for regulation

Republican lawmakers on Tuesday criticized Google during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over allegations of bias against and censorship of conservative groups on the tech giant’s platforms.
Also during the hearing, the father of Virginia reporter Alison Parker, who was shot and killed in August 2015 while conducting an interview on live television, called on Congress to further regulate Google and other tech giants.
Andy Parker testified on Tuesday that “the unimaginable pain felt” by his family “was amplified after the killer uploaded videos” of his 24-year-old daughter’s murder to YouTube. He added that Google and YouTube needed to self-police what’s posted.

“In essence, [Google] wanted me to watch my daughter’s murder and explain to a robot why it should be removed.”
— Andy Parker

The hearing, which came on a busy day on Capitol Hill for Silicon Valley’s behemoths, was the second in recent of months in which tech companies were grilled over accusations of discrimination against conservative viewpoints and the suppression of free speech.
“Google’s control over what people hear, watch, read, and say is unprecedented,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said. “Google can, and often does, control our discourse.”
Cruz added: “The American people are subject to overt censorship and covert manipulation” by Google’s algorithm.
Google’s vice president of global government affairs and public policy, Karan Bhatia, defended the tech giant – arguing that the company has no political bias and does not monitor content posted on its platforms. Bhatia noted that the company does censor or take down some content, but denied that there was any political motivation behind that.
“We work hard to fix our mistakes,” Bhatia said. “But these mistakes have affected both parties and are not a product of bias.”
He added: “We are not censoring speech on our platforms... We do have community guidelines against uploading, for example, videos that have violent imagery.”
Later in the hearing, Cruz criticized Google’s executives for their broad support of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, saying that 88 executives at the company contributed to her campaign.
“You know how many contributed to Donald Trump?” Cruz asked. “Zero, goose egg.”
Democrats on the committee defended the tech giant against the bias accusations but didn’t spare the company when it came to criticism that it did little to remove violent and disturbing imagery and videos from its platforms.
The Democrats’ criticism was bolstered by Parker’s testimony. He has worked to press Google to remove all footage of his daughter’s murder from its platform, with Google informing him that he could flag the content for removal.
“I pledged to honor my daughter’s memory and advocate for sensible gun laws so that others wouldn’t suffer the same fate as Alison,” Parker testified on Tuesday, adding that his advocacy resulted in threats to him and his family.
“They have taken the gruesome footage of my daughter’s murder, edited it into videos and flooded YouTube and other social media platforms with hate-filled diatribes maligning us.”
Parker said he “implored Google and YouTube to take down the footage of her murder and the related conspiratorial content,” adding that Google responded by suggesting he flag the content he found offensive.
“In essence, they wanted me to watch my daughter’s murder and explain to a robot why it should be removed,” Parker said. 

During the hearing on Tuesday, Andy Parker, the father of Virginia reporter Alison Parker, who was fatally shot in August 2015 while conducting an interview on live television, called on Congress to begin regulating Google and other tech giants.

“I never have, nor will I ever watch any of it for obvious reasons,” he added.
He said others have watched and flagged the videos on his behalf but the video of his daughter’s murder was still up as of Tuesday and had more than 700,000 views.
He said he communicated with Google and even met with representatives but since the meeting “there has been nothing but silence” until he got an email from the company on Tuesday morning.
“I understand that the general purpose of this hearing is to consider whether Internet gatekeepers such as Google should or should not censor the speech of the politically unpopular, however, it is important to note that turning a blind eye to targeted harassment over the Internet in the name of preserving free speech has real-world and life-altering consequences,” Parker testified on Tuesday.
He added, “If [Google] cannot properly protect citizens from online harassment, hate speech and moment-of-death videos, I call on Congress to step in and make sure that proper protections are in place for private citizens like me who are continually harassed and exploited.”
Parker went on to say, “We should protect the First Amendment, but it’s time for Google and social media to be regulated.”
“Why should a father have to search for, flag, and watch videos of his daughter’s murder?” Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, the ranking Democrat on the committee, asked.
Bhatia argued that the company was working to remove the videos but has so far been unable to take down every one.
Earlier, senators grilled Facebook on its plans to launch a new digital currency when it was still battling problems with privacy and other issues, during a Senate Banking Committee panel.
Arizona Republican Sen. Martha McSally said she doesn't trust Facebook because of repeated privacy violations and "repeated deceit."
Facebook executive David Marcus argued the company wants to innovate on behalf of its users. He said if another country were to build a successful digital currency first, the system might be out of reach of U.S. regulations and sanctions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump’s harsh attacks produce the debate he wants, on Socialist Democrats

Since I’ve been tough on President Trump’s attacks on the Democratic freshmen, and since the media outrage has been deafening, and since all House Democrats (and four Republicans) voted for a resolution condemning his tweets, I’ll begin by giving the floor to the president’s supporters.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said yesterday he does not believe the Trump attacks are racist. “I believe this is about ideology. … This is all about politics,” he said.
Newt Gingrich said Trump believes “the more he can get the country to look at the so-called squad, the more he can get them to realize how radical they are, and how fundamentally anti-American their views are; in the long run, the better off he is.”
Maryland GOP congressman Andy Harris said the tweets are “obviously not racist,” but “when anyone disagrees with someone now, the default is you call them a racist and this is no exception.”
He said Trump “could’ve meant go back to the district that they came from or the neighborhood they came from,” though the president has specifically talked about Ilhan Omar and Somalia.
Fox News’ Jesse Watters said while his mother views the tweets as racist, “Mom’s not going to scare me off. These were not racist. This was about patriotism. When did ‘Love it or leave it?’ become racist? Not only leave it, hey, come back and help us fix our problems.”
And the president himself tweeted yesterday that “I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!”, adding: “The Democrat Congresswomen have been spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate, & yet they get a free pass and a big embrace from the Democrat Party. … Why isn’t the House voting to rebuke the filthy and hate laced things they have said?”
What the Republican Party now wants—or is forced to want, since most members believe it’s political suicide to take on Trump—is to blur the debate.
In this view, it’s not about Trump saying the women should “go back” to where they came from before returning, it’s about the left-wing extremism of AOC, Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
This, I believe, was Trump’s strategy all along, to create enough of a firestorm that they become the face of the Democratic Party and his own initial attacks become beside the point.
That’s what Lindsey Graham did in mildly suggesting that his golfing buddy “aim higher” while trashing the freshmen: “We all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists. They hate Israel, they hate our own country.”
(His former House colleague Joe Scarborough accused him of “McCarthyism.”)
A relative handful of Republicans, meanwhile, spoke out against the president’s attacks on the four women:
Mitt Romney: “Destructive, demeaning and disunifying.” Lisa Murkowski: “There is no excuse for the president’s spiteful comments–they were absolutely unacceptable and this needs to stop.” Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, chided Trump for “unacceptable personal attacks and racially charged language.”
There are big challenges here for the media as well. I said yesterday on “America’s Newsroom” that news outlets should be cautious about branding Trump’s attacks as racist, as if it were an undisputed fact. CNN, CBS, ABC and, after an internal debate, the Washington Post are among those who have done so in straight news stories and segments.
My view is that readers and viewers are smart, especially when the president uses language that closely mirrors the historic “go back to Africa” taunts against blacks.
Cover the story aggressively, lay things out, and they can make up their own minds. Don’t act like the opposition party.
A larger question is whether the media are playing into the president’s hands. A New York Times editorial accused Trump of the politics of distraction:
“His comments elicited precisely the sort of media coverage and public outcry that he thrives on. So he did what he usually does: He went a step further…
“Mr. Trump’s aim of stoking an endless culture war puts his political critics in a bind. They can take his bait and fight back, participating in the divisive distraction he’s designed to energize his supporters, or they can ignore his outbursts and risk normalizing his terrible behavior.”
The fact is that a president can command media attention any time he wants, and that was true in the pre-Twitter age as well. And when a president makes divisive accusations of this magnitude, and the other party explodes in outrage, which is a very big story that can’t be minimized or ignored.
To do otherwise is to try to stage-manage the news for political reasons. And besides, it never works.

'The Squad' revives feud with Pelosi: Be aware when you 'single us out' that we're 'women of color'

The four progressive congresswomen who are currently in a nasty feud with President Trump offered a not-so-subtle warning to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, the next time she "singles them out."
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich, Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass, often referred to as "The Squad," sat down with "CBS This Morning" host Gayle King on Tuesday as the House voted to formally condemn Trump over tweets that Democrats labeled as racist.
King asked the congresswomen if they've been in contact with Pelosi.
"Our teams are in communication," Ocasio-Cortez responded.
"But shouldn't you be meeting face-to-face?" King asked.
"She's the new member, not the speaker," Tlaib interjected. "She has every right to sit down with her at any moment, any time with any of us. She is Speaker of the House. She can ask for a meeting to sit down with us for clarification."
Tlaib continued, "Acknowledge the fact that we are women of color, so when you do single us out, be aware of that and what you're doing, especially because some of us are getting death threats, because some of us are being singled out because of our backgrounds, because of our experiences and so forth."
King followed up with Ocasio-Cortez, asking if she was "interested in having a conversation" with Pelosi, which Ocasio-Cortez responded, "Absolutely."
Last week, the four congresswomen had an ongoing public spat with Pelosi, which got very heated after Ocasio-Cortez suggested that the speaker was "singling out" them because they were "women of color." Pelosi previously dismissed their vocal opposition to the House's approval for border funding.
Their feud, however, seemed to have evaporated on Sunday after Trump targeted them on Twitter, suggesting they should "go back" to the countries they came from despite how three of the four congresswomen were born in the U.S. and all four of them are U.S. citizens.
Trump's tweets were formally condemned by the House, resulting in a 240-187 vote. Four Republican lawmakers joined the Democrats, including Reps Will Hurd, R-Texas, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Susan Brooks, R-Ind., as well as Rep. Justin Amash, I-Mich.

Ocasio-Cortez gets new 2020 challenger: a Republican immigrant from Jamaica

Republican Scherie Murray is launching a campaign Wednesday for the New York congressional seat held by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Courtesy of Murray campaign)

EXCLUSIVE -- Scherie Murray, a New York businesswoman who immigrated from Jamaica as a child and is active in state Republican politics, is launching a campaign Wednesday for the congressional seat held by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Fox News has learned.
In a phone interview, Murray, 38, confirmed her intention to run for the New York congressional seat as a Republican.
“There is a crisis in Queens, and it’s called AOC,” Murray told Fox News. “And instead of focusing on us, she’s focusing on being famous. Mainly rolling back progress and authoring the job-killing Green New Deal and killing the Amazon New York deal.”
Murray, who was born in Jamaica and moved to the United States when she was 9, is officially launching her campaign Wednesday with an introductory video that takes sharp jabs at the 29-year-old Ocasio-Cortez.

'There is a crisis in Queens, and it’s called AOC.'
— Scherie Murray

“Your representative in Washington chooses self-promotion over service, conflict over constituents, resistance over assistance," Murray said in the video. "Queens and the Bronx needs someone who will create jobs instead of turning them away."
Asked about Ocasio-Cortez’s brand of Democratic socialism, Murray said, “I think it’s far, far to the left and it is not connecting with everyday Americans.”
As for "Medicare-for-all," which Ocasio-Cortez has embraced, the Republican said: “Medicare-for-all, I think a lot of people are happy with their current health insurance.” And on the Green New Deal, the left-wing proposal to address climate change pushed by Ocasio-Ortez, she said: “We know that it certainly will kill jobs.”
Murray joins four other Republicans who have filed to run for the seat: former police officer John Cummings, medical journalist Ruth Papazian, construction contractor Miguel Hernandez and entrepreneur Antoine Tucker.
No Democrats have yet announced a primary challenge to Ocasio-Cortez, though there's been speculation that establishment Democrats could rally behind a primary challenger. Ocasio-Cortez shocked the political world in 2018 by defeating longtime Rep. Joe Crowley in a Democratic primary.
Whichever Republican candidate emerges from the primary field will face a steep uphill climb in the overwhelmingly Democratic district. But Murray and others are looking to paint Ocasio-Cortez as more of a celebrity than a lawmaker, while stressing their ability to work across party lines.
Murray's new campaign video, which doesn’t mention President Trump or the Republican Party, portrays Murray as a bridge-builder. She is a former state committeewoman of the New York State Republican Party.
Asked during the interview if she considers herself a Trump supporter, she said “yes.” She said she is in the process of talking with national Republicans about her campaign, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a prominent black Republican in Congress.
She expressed disgust over the recent spat between Trump and Ocasio-Cortez and her allies. Trump has taken heat for telling Ocasio-Cortez and other minority progressives to "go back" to where they came from – provoking accusations from Democrats that Trump's comments are racist.
“I think it’s disgusting, to be quite honest,” Murray said of the controversy, without specifying which part of it disgusts her. “I think we are missing the point of why we’re elected to public office: to legislate on policy, to deliver results to those kitchen table issues that are affecting everyday Americans.”
Murray later clarified her thoughts on the back-and-forth, saying of Trump's tweet, "Is that how I would have worded it? No. Do I think the president is a racist? No." She added, "But I want to get back to the core of why we’re even talking about this – there is a crisis at our border."
Murray, who grew up in Southeast Queens and worked for the city’s Jamaica Bus Depot as a teenager, founded a television production and advertising company called The Esemel Group in 2004. She said her business generated employment for minorities in New York City. She said she no longer works for the company and is now a full-time mother.
The GOP primary will take place in June 2020.
Winning a general election in New York’s 14th congressional district would be a long shot for any Republican: In 2018, Ocasio-Cortez’s GOP opponent, Anthony Pappas, won just 14 percent of the vote.
But Murray still insists a Republican could win – even in a Democratic-controlled district – because of dissatisfaction with Ocasio-Cortez.
“A Republican can win the district,” she said. “There is an absolute path to victory when you look at a general election campaign.”

Crying Democrat Loser Cartoons

Kellyanne Conway says critics employ Hatch Act to 'silence' her support for Trump

Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway responded to critics Monday after formally defying a Hatch Act-related subpoena from the House Oversight Committee.
Her opponents are concerned about her effectiveness at her job and hoped to silence her, Conway said Monday on "Hannity."
"I'm concerned that there's such a weaponization and politicization of this thing called the Hatch Act," she said.
The Hatch Act limits political activity by federal workers. Congress approved the Hatch Act in 1939 to limit partisan activity by federal employees to ensure the government functions fairly and effectively.
The Office of Special Counsel -- separate from the office formerly run by Special Counsel Robert Mueller -- opened two cases focused on allegations Conway violated the Hatch Act by engaging in “both official and political activity” -- during her media appearances and on her Twitter account, @KellyannePolls.
The report stated, "Ms. Conway regularly participated in official media interviews in her capacity as a White House spokesperson to answer reporters’ questions about the Administration. Beginning in February 2019, Ms. Conway, during official media appearances, engaged in a pattern of partisan attacks on several Democratic Party candidates shortly after they announced their candidacy for President,” detailing instances involving Sens. Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke.
The OSC stated that in one Feb. 19 interview on "Fox & Friends," Conway “insinuated that Senator Booker was ‘sexist’ and a ‘tinny’ ‘motivational speaker,’” and claimed Warren, D-Mass., was “’lying’” about her ethnicity.
Conway said that no matter how heavy the pressure is on her to keep a low profile, she will continue to publicly support the president's policies.
"They're not going to silence me," she said. "They're not going to take away my First Amendment rights."
Conway also “attacked” O’Rourke for not “thinking the women running are good enough to be President.”
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report

Acting CBP Commissioner: Some critics either misinformed or lying about agency, actions

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are being wrongfully criticized and attacked by misinformed or intentionally misguided people, according to Mark Morgan, the acting CBP commissioner said.
Law enforcement and the intelligence community are likely successfully tracking potential threats against the agency and its infrastructure, Morgan claimed Monday on "The Ingraham Angle."
"It's absolutely dangerous," he said of some of the opposition to the agency's mission of border enforcement.
"I have full confidence that the law enforcement mechanisms and intelligence agencies are watching these groups."
"A lone wolf or violent extremist are very hard to prevent," he said, referring to a 69-year-old Antifa activist shot and killed by Washington state police after attacking an ICE facility in the Evergreen State.
The group Seattle Antifascist Action described assailant Willem Van Spronsen a "good friend and comrade" who "took a stand against the fascist detention center in Tacoma" and "became a martyr who gave his life to the struggle against fascism."
Van Spronsen was armed with a rifle and incendiary devices when he launched his assault on the Northwest Detention Center around 4 a.m. Saturday, according to the Tacoma Police Department. Employees reported he was throwing 'incendiary devices' and setting vehicles on fire and the first officers on the scene said he was wearing a sachet and carrying flares.
In light of van Spronsen's attack, Morgan slammed some of the rhetoric from agency opponents and critics.
"The rhetoric that's out there from our own elected leaders -- they're attacking the men and women of ICE, they're attacking the men and women of CBP," he said.
"It's unjust, it's unfair, it's misinformed, and outright sometimes, they're just lying to the American people and it's undoubtedly fueling this."
Of the comparison between border detention facilities and World War II-era concentration camps, Morgan said the two are completely different.
"In the concentration camps, the Nazis were killing people. Customs and Border Protection are saving lives," he said.
Fox News' Travis Fedschun contributed to this report.

Hannity: 'The radicals are in charge'

Fox News' Sean Hannity focused Monday night on the change within the Democratic Party, declaring once again that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is now the leader and that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is "powerless."
"They are on the verge of an all-out civil war. Nancy Pelosi has lost complete control of her radical socialist base. Freshman Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman Tlaib and Omar and Ayanna Pressley are now running the show," Hannity said on his television show.
"Speaker Pelosi is now totally powerless."
Hannity was reacting to past comments made by the four congresswomen who responded to President Trump's controversial tweets Sunday calling for the progressive congresswomen to "go back" to where they came from.
Trump doubled down Monday calling out the lawmakers for their Anti-American "hate."
Hannity warned that "radicals" within the Democratic Party will use identity politics to attack any that oppose them including other Democrats to "reshape America."
"It does not matter what Speaker Pelosi says, what she does. The radicals who are in charge, anyone who opposes them of course quickly labeled xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist, sexist, and a bigot and want dirty air and water," Hannity told his audience.
"The so-called 'squad' of far left freshmen congresswomen are now using identity politics even against members of their own party. The end goal is to fundamentally reshape America."
The Fox News host also pointed out the influence this "wing" has on the Democratic presidential candidates.
"The base of the Democratic Party is so powerful that every 2020 hopeful has adopted their fringe socialist policies. And if they don't adopt it completely they are trashed by many of the four," Hannity said.
Hannity blasted the four congresswomen for calling for the impeachment of President Trump Monday during a press conference and for their vision of the country.
"They don't want to improve this country. They want to remake this country into something we all know will fail," Hannity said. "They want to impeach the one person that's been standing in their way."
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.

Extra protection sought for certain lawmakers after Trump's comments about 'squad' (Crying Dems)

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., was seeking extra protection for members of Congress on Monday after President Trump’s tweets and remarks about the progressive “squad.”
Trump’s remarks apparently were directed at four congresswomen: Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. All are American citizens and three of the four were born in the U.S.
Far from backing down, Trump on Monday dug in on comments he had initially made a day earlier on Twitter that if lawmakers “hate our country,” they can go back to their “broken and crime-infested” countries.

The House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., right, is seeking extra protection for members of Congress. The letter is addressed to Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger, left, because, this year, he heads the Capitol Police Board. (Getty, File)

“If you’re not happy in the U.S., if you’re complaining all the time, you can leave, you can leave right now,” he said.
In the letter for House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger, Thompson argued that the Capitol Police Board should meet to “analyze the current threat environment and set thresholds for enhanced safety of Members.”
Thompson asked for a meeting within 48 hours and a classified readout of the meeting.
The letter was addressed to Stenger because he has headed the Capitol Police Board this year.
Thompson said security officials should set “thresholds for enhanced security for certain targeted Members, and evaluate threat streams with law enforcement partners in Member districts. Being proactive in this instance is vital to the safety of not only these targeted Members, but all Members of Congress.”
Fox News has been told that despite Thompson’s pleas, other lawmakers have faced more serious threats than members of the squad ahead of Trump's tweets.