If You Don't See It, Does It Not Exist?

For John, BLUF:  The one thing we need regarding the Internet is no help from Governments keeping the information correct.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Around 8:30 this morning I stumbled across an article from The Tablet (UK) about how "Publisher HarperCollins omits Israel from school atlas 'to meet local preferences'".  The map does not show the nation of Israel and fills in the space by showing Syria and Jordan extending to the Mediterranean Sea.  Just doesn't exist on the maps in schoolbooks they ship to schools in the Gulf Region.  And, if you think it is just Harper Collins, Google does the same thing, tailoring maps for the locations where they are downloaded from the Internet.

So, while I was still in high umbrage, my wife notes to me, out of the blue, that Harper Collins has been printing maps without Israel, but is now changing the policy.  In an article in The Daily Mail the publisher says it will also pulp all of its unsold copies of the atlas.

This was in the Daily Mail article, toward the bottom.

US-based HarperCollins Publishers is a subsidiary of News Corp, whose executive chairman, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is famously pro-Israel.

A turn-around in 24 hours seems pretty quick.  That suggests that perhaps Mr Murdock himself put his oar in the water.

Hat tip to Memeorandum, and my Wife.

Regards  —  Cliff