YAHOO!

USES HOME PAGE

IN APPARENT

ATTEMPT

TO TIP

MASSACHUSETTS

SENATE RACE

FOR COAKLEY

Another www.RobertDyer.net Exclusive!!!

I don't like to spend much time on national issues on this blog, but this story has implications for everyone who will be devastated if Congress passes its health "reform" bill.

As you may know, there is a special election tomorrow in Massachusetts to determine who will replace Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. The candidates are Republican state senator Scott Brown, and Attorney General Martha Coakley.

What you may not know, is that Yahoo! put itself in a bad ethical position yesterday by promoting Coakley on its front page. Yahoo!'s front page serves as the "home page" for many internet users.

Yesterday morning, under the "top searches" box, one of the top 10 was "Martha Coakley." Later, I checked again, and it was still there. Like so many of the Yahoo! Top 10 search terms, this was clearly inaccurate. "Martha Coakley" is not in any way more searched for nationally than "Scott Brown." Yet "Scott Brown" was not present in the Top 10.

The ethical thing to do would have been to use the term "Mass. Senate Race."

Instead, Yahoo! chose to only show the Democrat, correctly assuming 2 things: first, Massachusetts voters unfamiliar with the candidates would hear only about Coakley; second, many users click on unfamiliar names or terms - thereby executing search results - to find out what they are. This action would probably lead them to click through to Coakley's home page.

This may seem like a small detail. But given the small turnout in special elections, the power of Yahoo! could conceiveably tip what is expected to be a very close election.

For a web company attempting to be a news outlet, that impression of abuse of power is unethical and simply unfair. But given the desperation of Senate Democrats who want to increase the profits of the insurers and drug companies who got them elected, it's not surprising.