Google's Anti-Antitrust PR Offensive

Six days ago I noted that the Google Public Policy Blog had not followed up on its April 29 promise to tackle the hard questions about the now-teetering Google Books settlement. And it still hasn't.

Google Writ Large, however, did post, on May 8, a discussion headlined "Google's approach to competition." The link is http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/05/googles-approach-to-competition.html. This is obviously part of a PR offensive in the face of multi-front antitrust investigations. To Google's credit, its own post links, undefensively, to a news item headlined "Google Boosts Lobbying, Media Outreach to Combat Antitrust Concerns," which even recites the company's lobbying expenditures as found on the database of the Center for Responsive Politics.

I've written a letter to The New York Times about its front-page article yesterday, which touted the Obama Administration's professed heightened commitment to antitrust enforcement, but without once uttering the six-letter word beginning with "g." If The Times passes on the letter, I'll publish it here.