Kara Swisher vs. Google
The Justice Department met with Google and Yahoo's customers and competitors this week as it continues to build an antitrust case for its litigious hired gun Sandy Litvack. On top of that, Canada is now on Google's case too, having hired antitrust lawyer David Kent. Never heard of him, sure he's a hoser, eh. In response to all the haters, Google just made itself another enemy: Kara Swisher, the mean lesbian mommyblogger employed by Rupert Murdoch and partnered to Google executive Megan Smith. Fun times at home!Google's mistake: Creating a PowerPoint presentation and posting it to a site with the search-engine-optimized name "Facts about the Yahoo-Google advertising agreement." In the presentation, which we've embedded below, Google explained that the deal is not a merger and that Ford uses Toyota engines in some of its cars. It also misquoted Swisher, making her really mad. The presentation cites Swisher as saying:
There’s not a whole lot for the Justice Department to hang a case on, in contrast to its case against Microsoft, which landed in court because of bullying behavior that actually took place before the case was waged.
What Google's presentation doesn't say is how Swisher prefaced the post from which that quote was taken:
I and many others–advertisers, publishers and state and federal regulators–are a bit nervous about further concentration of market power in one set of hands, even if they are such Googley hands. But in the interest of fairness and because I like to argue with myself here is a counterpoint with three key reasons why Google and Yahoo might hold firm in launching the partnership.
"I feel like one of those misquoted movie critics in newspaper ads!" Swisher writes in a post today:
("Go…see…it…quick!!!," when the entire quote was "Go home before you see even a second of it or you will be sick quick!!!”)