The Student News Site of Florida Gulf Coast University

Eagle Media

Eagle Media

Eagle Media

Give me liberty or give me Google

By Veronica Armbruster


Normally, I try to stay far away as I can from the daily struggles between the modern American media and President Trump.
It hasn’t done anything positive for me. It has nothing to do with any of my classes this semester. Plus, I’m fairly sure that neither entity cares for my personal opinion on their sibling rivalry.
However, when an American president decides to go after Google so that he himself can decide whether or not reports of him have been “rigged” against him in a negative light, that goes beyond the even farthest reaching scope of the Oval Office.
Yes, you read my words correctly. Google – a global company which allows literally anyone on the planet to search for information on their programing to their heart’s content. Google is being attacked by the President for giving him bad press.
That goes from mere squabbling to: Is the president trying to start censoring the media – and in turn – the American public? Or more constitutionally succinct: Is the president violating the first amendment of the constitution?  Or even more bluntly: Is the president nuts!?
Now I cannot attest to President Trump’s state of mind at all times. Nor am I familiar with the pattern of his mental health. Nevertheless, trying to attack one of the largest tech companies in the United States as far as the fairness of its use is concerned is akin to attacking the average high school history textbook for not recording last week’s mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida on the spot. It’s simply ludicrous.
Google and its’ world famous search engine – while maintained by hundreds of engineers who can tweak the main algorithm should they choose to do so – is simply a product made by a company which has nothing to do election results or even bad press.
If President Trump wants to stop bad news about him from spreading, that’s going to take a lot more than just a White House investigation of Google. He essentially is going to have to stop the free press – and knowingly violate the Constitution and the amendments he swore to uphold during his inauguration.
Even if he managed to accomplish that, he could never stop people from communicating, even if it was simple cuneiform being drawn in the dirt with a stick.
If President Trump really feels like he is getting too much bad press. If  he feels like he is getting rigged by non-sentiment based search engines. Even if he still thinks that the Dark State is after him. Then perhaps he should start by examining his own flagrant behavior. Start by acting less like a teenager pandering to his friends for his voter base and more like an actual adult who actually understands the pressures and responsibilities of the public office that he was elected for.
That way individuals would not be turned away from the press that President Trump is trying so hard to put to put to bed.
I understand that President Trump’s voter base felt left out of the domestic political conversation and that’s why they elected him. However, every leader – regardless of their party affiliation – is going to get bad press on everything they do, whether they like it or not.
That’s the price they pay for supporting protected political speech.

Story continues below advertisement
Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All Eagle Media Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *