Having made a laughing stock of its corporate credo "You can make money without doing evil," Google wants everyone else too believe they've done the right thing in playing footsie with the Chinese government. So CEO Eric Schmidt went to Beijing and loudly prolaimed the rightness of the company's decision to censor search results. (Note: There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Schmidt test drove one of the Red Army's new tanks at Tiananmen Square. He was actually at a test grounds near the Great Wall.) "I think it's arrogant for us to walk into a country where we are just beginning to operate and tell that country how to operate," Schmidt said. WHAT? That's not arrogant — that's the American WAY! The AP reports that Schmidt was speaking at a ceremony to announce Google's Chinese-language brand name "Gu Ge," or "Valley Song," which the company says draws on Chinese rural traditions to describe a fruitful and rewarding experience. Fruitful and rewarding, as long as your not Chinese, that is.
I direct readers to earlier venting of my spleen over Google's gross hypocrisy here and here.
Collateral Damage 