Google has always tried to take the side that they do not manually alter the results of their ranking. Even when it comes to hate sites, Google tries to stay out of the debate with that phrase. We reported a while back on a topic of a hate site ranking #1 for Jew. In the case with the anti-Semitic site ranking #1 in Google, Google took out an AdWords ad saying they do not condone such a site but can not manually remove it due to their policies.
Since then, Google News has become very popular. According to an InternetNews article named Google Axes Hate News. This has encouraged a thread to have been started at SEW forums named Google Censorship where there is a poll that asks "Should Google "Axe" National Vanguard and National Zietung?" The poll is weighing currently on the side of "Yes", with 46% of the vote but if you read the thread, many are of the belief that Google can censor what is likes. Everyman, from Google Watch, says, "The problem is Google's persistent, geeky, stupid assumption that by using machines, the humans at Google are no longer responsible for the behavior exhibited by their machines."
As you can imagine, the thread gets some insightful replies. Nothing like those controversial topics to get a thread flowing. :)