For reasons why I've started this discussion you might want to look at our current third lead. It a very long and in-depth interview with Al Sharpton, which proves that when you're not working to a fixed wordage you can still have an interesting story.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Al_Sharpton_speaks_out_on_race%2C_rights_and_wha t_bothers_him_about_his_critics

The question that bugs most contributors is, "why should something like this have to go on a blog before Google will list it?" Three men and a dog can get their blog listed on Google News.

If the concern is that people other than Google will interpret those with Flagging powers as the editorial control team - the first (and probably a highly ineffective) step is to call it something else.

The primary purpose is to be listed in Google, and I'll shoot anyone on Wikinews who advertises it as anything other than a method of doing that plus making vandalism less rewarding. I'd like to simply and quietly get us added to the Google News index because we've implemented this. That's for English only. The other languages already piggyback off our accreditation process and would be sensible enough to let us develop a workable policy over time.

Brian McNeil