Right-Wing Google?

According to an article published in PR Watch, Google is giving “substantial” grants to some high-profile right-wing political groups.

Corporations are not required to post details concerning their grants and subsidies, but Google decided in 2010 to start voluntarily posting a selection from their grant budget. The figures are interesting, to say the least.  Some of the names that appear as “significant” benefactors receiving “substantial” funding from Google were Heritage Action (which led the charge to defund the Affordable Care Act), Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society, and the American Conservative Union. The actual dollar amounts were not disclosed, but Google, to understate it, has a lot of money.

This story is very curious to me. Of course, the liberal author over at PR Watch is extremely concerned and appalled at this trend. I’m frankly just surprised. In a world where mainstream media giants tend to be staunchly anti-conservative by and large, it is really surprising to see one of the largest media giants starting (apparently) to lean right.

According to the PR Watch article:

Google has a distinctively progressive image, but in March 2012 it hired former Republican member of the House of Representatives, Susan Molinari as its Vice President of Public Policy and Government Relations. According to the New York Times, Molinari is being “paid handsomely to broaden the tech giant’s support beyond Silicon Valley Democrats and to lavish money and attention on selected Republicans.”

When I first heard about Google’s recent activities, I figured conservative politics was the pet project of a few, select, overzealous people within Google who would soon be canned for their political activism.

But recent evidence would suggest that the guiding top-down vision for Google is starting to navigate right—that Google’s puzzling right-wing advocacy is not the work of a rogue element in the company, but a designed shift of political emphasis. Strange indeed. I don’t know yet what to think of it.

20 responses

  1. Don’t you “get it” ???
    The hand writing on the wall has been noticed by “highly visible” social-related companies!
    2014 is the beginning of the end of “liberal playtime” in America!
    2016 will set the stones in place for a full “reverse swing” of the pendulum..
    Smart management does NOT want to be caught in the floor sweeper of the future, when it cleans house across the board…NOT JUST IN GOVT OFFICES, but in those “branded” as LIBERAL — nor, do they want to be the targets of NEW RULES and RULE CHANGES designed to “even the playing field” for ALL AMERICANS, ie: like MSM or other forms of “public knowledge sources”, etc..
    To make it real easy to understand: THEY ARE DOING CYA BETTER THAN MOST.

    • Looking at the list, I noticed that Grover Norquist name is on the list. What little I know about him is, he’s no conservative. More of a RINO. The other thing is, the MSM is more than happy to lie to the people about their intentions. I think Google is doing this. We’ll see.

  2. I am independent, but I am also moderate, and read both sides of the consent conflict between right and left. What I found is as long as I live, I will never, ever, vote for another Democrat.

  3. I notice they don’t say how much AND state the list is NOT comprehensive. Based on the little information actually included in the article, they could have given a few hundred thousand to conservative groups, and a few hundred million to liberal groups. Without more specific information, the only thing we know is SOMEONE at Google wants to APPEAR to be leaning conservative.

  4. Knowing that Google has been liberal all of its existence it is hard to believe that it is changing. This may be a trick to get Conservatives to lower their guard.

  5. Maybe Google is finally seeing that it’s just smart business to change from supporting those who want to take your money and give it away to those who want to help you continue to develop your business so you can hire more people so more people can do better for themselves. One can hope.

  6. This only means that Google is giving money to politicians in each party, to help garner support for tech policy positions that Google favors. Tech lobbying is one of those areas where the left/right political dynamic is not important to the core positions. It is therefore a gratuitous opportunity for both Republicans and Democrats to stand up vigorously for cash handouts…Now that’s an issue upon which they can agree.

  7. I’m sure they still donate and grant monies to liberals too. I haven’t seen anything that shows they’ve changed their minds about being very anti Second Amendment.

  8. Liberal idealism is nice until it drains your bank account. Google apparently likes the idea of being financially successful and has begun to see how liberal policies threaten that.

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