Fox News on Google News

August 21, 2020 8:37 PM

I've been reading Google News since it was a beta back in 2002. I can almost pinpoint when it changed: Fox News was never featured until just after Trump was elected. And now it's there everyday. Highly ranked, and usually with headlines in opposition to all the other news services. Has anyone else noticed this?
posted by valkane to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

I noticed this too and my solution was to stop reading google news. I used to think of it as a “pulse” on what was happening, now it’s just a shittorrent.

I recommend only following 3-5 news sources. A city news, a state/province news, and an international news or two. Absolutely fuck the national news. If it’s important enough for international reporting, you’ll see it. And if it’s just some garbage about a state 2000 miles away from you, you won’t.
posted by weed donkey at 9:10 PM on August 21, 2020 [11 favorites]

For me, Google News is tailored around my search and browsing history (as far as I can tell). If I see any stories or sources I have no interest in, I tap the "show me fewer stories like this" button and that eventually takes care of it.
posted by mollywas at 12:07 AM on August 22, 2020

I rarely see Fox stories on my Google news, and it doesn't seem to have changed since the election. I haven't told Google to show me less of them, either. I do see the wildly opposing headlines, but it's very rare that they show up at all.

One of the features of Google news (both a benefit and a major problem) is that it is tailored for each reader. So your experience may well be accurate for you but not reflective of a larger trend.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 5:09 AM on August 22, 2020

Google News likely uses algorithms similar to Google search results, which includes a popularity contest. Meaning, it's likely that Fox News got more popular around the time Trump was elected, so it started jumping up in Google's rankings in general. Since Google doesn't tell us jack all about this, there's my educated guess.
posted by nosila at 7:10 AM on August 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I have noticed that in my case. Moreover, I have noticed weird-ass non-actual news organizations being featured on occasion. I am not googling conspiracy sites so I don’t know what’s up with that. I think it’s highly problematic. I can hide that stuff but someone else is going to be seeing it. As a former journalist who does not have a great deal of respect for commercial news sources, I still think it’s a problem when websites like Real Clear Politics show up in something that is presented as a news feed.
posted by Bella Donna at 8:05 AM on August 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

If you're looking for a solution, here.

Note, the procedure shown at that link is only effective if you are signed into a Google account while reading
Google News.

I've also noticed this happening more within the past couple of weeks and didn't know what to make of it. On my android devices I've also seen more political ads for a certain candidate in the apps I use. Maybe Google makes some kind of inference based on that? Whatever, as far as Google News is concerned, I am on the verge of blocking Newsweek too.
posted by fuse theorem at 10:19 AM on August 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

I noticed this too and my solution was to stop reading google news.
Yup.
posted by Glinn at 3:35 PM on August 22, 2020 [1 favorite]