Google News prioritized keeping The New York Times afloat over promoting stories exposing an alleged Democrat fraudster and congresswoman who set the modern record for bilking more from taxpayers than any other member of the House of Representatives in over 100 years.
Google News, Apple News and other news aggregators represent to their users that the information delivered to their phones, computers and devices reliably reflects the news. Google, however, chose to suppress news about Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), who was indicted for allegedly stealing millions in taxpayer-funded FEMA grants. Instead, Google News helped its favorite media outlet, The Times, draw users to the Grey Lady’s popular and profitable games section.
MRC President David Bozell reacted to Google’s apparent funding scheme to direct ad revenue to its ally, saying: “Most New York Times readers just jump to Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections. It seems clear to me that Google is trying to keep The Times financially solvent. For both Google and The Times, the phrase ‘All the News That’s Fit to Print’ is now more myth than mission.”
Dan Schneider, MRC Free Speech America’s vice president, echoed Bozell’s comments in response to Google: “Like the New York Times, Google has an agenda to radicalize the country and upend American values. So it is no surprise that it uses its trillions of dollars of assets to prop up the Times, its partner in crime. Google is basically the largest financier and ad agency for liberal media outlets around the world.”
Among its top 20 daily morning headlines in the four days following Cherfilus-McCormick’s ethics hearing, Google promoted a puzzling story. The headline simply read “NYT Spelling Bee Hints for March 29, 2026.” The story linked to a page at The New York Times that promoted hints and tips for its daily Spelling Bee game. Games such as Spelling Bee and Wordle provide the leftist news outlet with more traffic than its actual news pages, and those games come with ad revenue that is helping keep the outlet afloat.
Google also ran eight headlines about the “No Kings” protests, including one insisting that the demonstrations did not go nearly far enough and should include more “confrontation in the future.”
The tech giant completely ignored any coverage of the House Ethics Panel trial of Cherfilus-McCormick, which ended with a broad, bipartisan consensus and a guilty verdict on 25 separate ethics charges. Google News kept the scandal out of its top 20 headlines for four days after the panel’s findings were announced — a total of 80 missed opportunities between March 27 and 30. In contrast, even Apple News and Microsoft’s MSN published stories about the Cherfilus-McCormick scandal.
While such proceedings are typically handled behind closed doors, the panel elected to televise all seven hours of the Cherfilus-McCormick trial. Cherfilus-McCormick is now facing a criminal trial on charges that she allegedly stole and laundered $5 million in FEMA relief funds through her own company, with a grand jury indictment claiming that a portion of the ill-gotten gains directly funded her successful congressional race. Cherfilus-McCormick, who has refused to resign from office, faces a maximum penalty of 53 years in prison if convicted.
Rarely does a sitting member of Congress face a rebuke this damning from the House Ethics Committee while also facing a grand jury indictment. Historical records indicate that the last time a member of Congress was involved in allegedly stealing more was in 1870, shortly after the Civil War.
Methodology: On Mar. 27-30, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 stories promoted on Google News each morning at approximately 8:30 AM EDT. Researchers analyzed the 80 headlines and reported on the results.
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