Fake News Appears on Google News?

The LawLibTech blog (3/19/2006) brings our attention
to a fascinating story by Rich Wiggins on Wigblog
(03/09/2006). Wiggins reports that anyone can insert
a story into the Internet-based "PR agencies" that Google
News includes in its index. After tracking a series of
questionable press releases in Google News over a period of
time, he decided to test the system himself by writing up a
press release about his trip to Key West. He threw in a few
serious quotations and used i-newswire.com, which purports
to be a “free press-release distribution center” based in Fountain
Valley, California.) Shortly after he submitted his story
to i-newswire it was indexed by Google News.

Wiggins concludes, "Obviously this raises a lot of questions about
what sources are indexed by Google News and whether Google News
hasn't grown way beyond the parameters of an index of bona fide media
outlets."