I'll respond by saying that anything bad that happens to Google is a good thing. "Free market". That's a hoot.
You're right that you won't be staying long if you think you can spew that nonsense, by the way.
I don't see anyone arguing that AT&T or the Baby Bells weren't monopolies or that their market position was a good thing. Do you have a point? I'm pretty sure you don't.
And that part everyone is fine with: clearly marking and allocating space for ads around the search results. That's how they make money.
The problem is when the actual search results are being skewed to direct people to Google's content (or content which directly benefits them in some way).
You deride me for making a bad comparison (YP+plumbing+plumber listing manipulation vs Google+news+news search result manipulation) and yet you try to do the same but can't remember the details?
I remember that there was a section at the start of the YP dedicated to large advertisements. However, it didn't look like the listings at all. This is comparable to what Google currently does with ads by putting them alongside the search results in clearly marked boxes.
However the actual YP listings were, as Pendergast stated, in alphabetical order. Yes there were ads embedded in the listings, but again, they didn't look the same as the listings themselves (nor change the ordering of them).
I'm not naive enough to believe that the EU isn't influenced at all by business and self-interest, nor am I any fan of Microsoft. However, the overall case here is about antitrust and whether or not Google is using it's dominance in one market to unfairly compete in others. You can create conspiracy theories and distractions all you like, but the heart of the matter is whether Google is indeed doing that or not. If so, then action needs to be taken to prevent it (legislation, fines, whatever).
How would you know if the results are skewed? Is it transparent? I don't think so.
Also, weren't there stories about how Google+ results would list above Facebook? Which is more relevant?
And doesn't have Google +1's improve your SEO rank?