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Comment by Mithaldu | Hacker News Reader

> “We are afraid of Google,” wrote Mathias Döpfner, chief executive of Axel Springer

By quoting him the article has directly made itself extremely suspect, since the publishing house Springer owns the biggest and worst fact- and politics-mangling tabloid in germany, Bild.

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I don't know anything about Bild, and only know Springer as the publisher of expensive low-print-run sometimes-poorly-formatted academic books. But isn't this like saying that the Wall Street Journal isn't credible because the same company also publishes the New York Post?

No, it's like saying the Wall Street Journal would be suspect if the same company publishes FOX News, or the Daily Mail. Publications that openly lie, distort and abuse; on a massive scale; to serve their own political slant.

Addendum: To clarify how terrible Bild is, consider this website: http://www.bildblog.de/ It is a blog dedicated to pointing out factual mistakes in the Bild publication. They have been running since 2004.

I'm not sure if this is deliberate or not, but until 2013, the Wall Street Journal and FOX News were owned by the same company..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation

I was not aware of that, but it leads me to ask a question:

I have seen first-hand that the thinking of Bild extends to other companies owned by Springer, companies that have nothing to do with what Bild does, like the price comparison portal http://idealo.de I have seen this in person when i attended job interviews for programming positions at those companies. That is my reason to not give anything or anyone connected to Bild, directly or indirectly, any iota of trust in their honesty.

So, what is your reason for giving WSJ any trust?

Wrong Springer.

So it is. Thanks for pointing that out!

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