According to USC Annenberg’s Online Journalism Review, some quirks of linguistic usage may be effectively biasing the Google News algorithm toward hard-right anti-Kerry articles. Author J. D. Lasica claims that anti-Kerry pieces will tend to refer derisively to “John Kerry” repeatedly as a derisive rhetorical device, where more mainstream articles will tend to refer to the candidate as “Senator Kerry” or just “Kerry” after the first reference. Also, attack pieces are more likely to use Kerry’s full name in their title, as in, “John Kerry Eats Babies!” Both of these factors would tend to boost fringe anti-Kerry results for a search on the term “John Kerry,” while a search on just “Kerry” tends to produce a more mainstream mix.
(Found via Ars Technica)
