Government Search Engines Link to Kerry Critics
NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
WASHINGTON Searching for "Kerry" on the Department of
Homeland Security's Web site Tuesday afternoon turned up an
unexpected top hit: a Republican attack on the Democrat presidential candidate.
A similar search on the Web site of the Department of Health and
Human Services brought up the same link at the top: a news release
from conservative Rep. C.L. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, that said a John
Kerry administration "would embolden environmental extremists to
press an aggressive agenda of restricting access and responsible
use of public lands."
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The statement is posted on the Web site of the House Republican
Conference, www.gop.gov.
Made aware by The Associated Press of the political content that
appears through his agency's search engine, HHS spokesman Bill Hall
was not amused.
"That is not supposed to be there, and we are quite upset,"
Hall said.
Both agencies pointed the finger at the government's official
Web portal, Firstgov.gov, which maintains their search engines.
The second and third picks on the "Kerry" HHS search, his
testimony before a Senate panel in 1999 and his own Senate site,
should also not be there, Hall said, because the pages do not come
from the HHS family of agencies, such as the Food and Drug
Administration. He said that HHS had provided Firstgov.gov a list of
URLs to include and that Senate Web sites should not be among them.
Firstgov.gov, for its part, blamed the error on a technical
glitch.
"We thank the AP for pointing out this unintended result, and
are working to have it corrected by tomorrow," said Viki Reath,
spokeswoman for the General Services Association, which administers
Firstgov.gov.
By 5:30 p.m. Tuesday the links in question no longer appeared on
the HHS and DHS sites.
© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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