Ew. Google sponsors conservative political conference.

[firecat]

Google was the only business among the nine main sponsors of the Conservative Political Action Conference, co-hosted by the Tea Party.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-03/google-sponsoring-conservative-political-conference-co-hosted-by-tea-party.html

The company says it will have a presence at both Republican and Democratic events during this year’s election season, including each party’s convention. Google also had a role in the Iowa caucus last month. The CPAC event was attractive because half the attendees are under 25 and heavy users of technology, Google said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

“This event is a great opportunity for us to showcase Google.com/elections and tools like Google+, which we hope will be used by every candidate and campaign,” the Mountain View, California-based company said.

https://plus.google.com/116535035008265766913/posts/HWKthZcF9Ke

Jay Laefer - Feb 12, 2012 - Public
Embarrassed and Disgusted

As I've written before, I don't speak for my employer. Now I feel obliged to write: my employer does not speak for me.

Two days ago, I learned that Google had sponsored the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). During the event, CPAC organized and hosted various panel discussions. Allow me to share a few:

"The Failure of Multiculturalism: How the pursuit of diversity is weakening the American Identity". The panel was sponsored by ProEnglish, and featured a panelist from VDARE. ProEnglish supports making English the only official language in the United States. VDARE is a white nationalist group.

"Why are U.S. taxpayers spending billions to promote abortion and homosexuality worldwide?"

"The Phony Divide Between Fiscal & Social Conservatives: Protecting Marriage as a Case Study". The panel featured Focus on the Family, Phyllis Schlafly, and the National Organization for Marriage (an anti-LGBT group).

Let me be clear: Each of these people and organizations should be free to express their views, no matter how hateful they are. But my employer spent at least $20,000 to be one of only nine top-tier sponsors of CPAC, and that disgusts me.

ETA: On the other hand, I just got email from Equality California, a group supporting same-sex marriage, that Google is one of the sponsors of their Equality Awards event.

Comments

[bcholmes]

That's alarming.

[laughingrat]

Oh dammit Google.

[amadi]

Playing both sides against the middle.

[outlier_lynn]

Publicly traded corporations have only one moral rule. "What ever is necessary to show a good quarter." The only time a company surprises me is when they take a stand on the unpopular side of an argument.

I remember, years ago, when Bank of America opened their company healthcare plan to include one other adult regardless of relationship to the employee. It supported same-sex relationships for their employees without declaring that as the goal. They could be lauded by the LBGT community while telling the "conservatives" it wasn't about the queers.

Google stopped being a bunch of "liberal geeks" when money became the name of the game.

[evilawyer]

Selling to both sides. Google must figure "It works for arms dealers. Why not us?"