Media: Google censors blogger
The Claremont (CA) Insider blog got some juicy details about the salaries paid to Claremont city officials and printed images of pay stubs that the blogger found on the public Website. The stubs showed stuff beyond their official salaries. From a journalistic point of view, it was a pretty good “get.” But the city contacted Google with a tale about how the images were the city’s property and could not be reprinted without their permission. Google responded by telling the blogger it would remove his site from Google’s free Blog*Spot service. He had no choice but to comply. So he’s running the exact same post, buth with with text from the images rather than the images themselves. The blogger noted that the images contained no data that could violate any individual’s privacy, like social security numbers or birth dates.
My two cents: Stop hosting the site on Blogger. The site runs great when its running and as long as Google doesn’t side with the people who don’t like your blog. I recommend all serious bloggers buy some space on a server and host their own sites via WordPress or Movable Type, or some other platform that will let you import posts and images from a Blogger account.
I’m generally a Google supporter. But the company whose founders once promised that it would not be evil seems to be leaning that direction a lot these days. I’m starting to like Mahalo.
Hat tip: Foohill Cities Blog via Romenesko.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
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