Big Tech companies and legacy media outlets have a big thing in common: stifling conservative viewpoints.
California Democrats have orchestrated a deal requiring Google and California taxpayers to shell out hundreds of millions of dollars to state-approved news organizations. If Democrats replicate this unholy alliance between Big Tech and legacy media nationwide, it would be open season for conservative and independent journalists.
According to the progressive left, Big Tech companies are responsible for killing traditional journalism, especially local newspapers. Global newspaper circulation has been declining since 1989, long predating Big Tech platforms. Traditional outlets have nobody to blame for their misfortune but themselves. If they were still interested in reporting the facts instead of regurgitating progressive talking points, Americans would still read and trust them.
Digitization of the news and the rise of free speech-oriented social media platforms like Elon Musk’s X has led Americans to look beyond traditional outlets to stay informed. Progressives, longing for the good old days of their complete stranglehold on the public discourse, want to bail out failing newsrooms that exist for little more than repackaging Democrat press releases. To conceal their true motive, progressives claim that they are on a noble crusade to “save local journalism.”
Earlier this year, the California Assembly considered the “California Journalism Preservation Act,” a bill that would force platforms with news links to pay newsrooms for linking to their content. The CJPA, modeled on similar “link tax” laws in Canada and Australia, amounts to a government-ordered cash transfer from platforms to left-wing government-backed newsrooms. Whatever happened to an independent press?
Instead of passing CJPA, California Democrats struck a deal with Google that requires the company to send more than $100 million to state-backed newsrooms over the next five years and tens of millions more to launch an artificial intelligence “accelerator.” California taxpayers have the pleasure of forking over $70 million, leading to as much as $250 million earmarked for failing news organizations and journalists by 2030. When this money runs out, Democrats will head back to the well for more.
Conservative outlets operating in California may be drooling at the prospect of getting their piece of the pie. Still, Democrats have structured the agreement to ensure that conservatives would not get a crumb. The bailout money will pass through the “News Transformation Fund,” which pledges to use the funds to support “underrepresented groups.” The left-wing University of California administers the News Transformation Fund, which counts labor unions and far-left journalism outfits as members. Does anyone doubt the direction in which the News Transformation Fund would transform the news?
Democrats are actively working to nationalize California-style bailouts of their favorite media companies. Democrats have repeatedly attempted to pass the “Journalism Competition Preservation Act,” which would exempt establishment media companies from antitrust law. If Democrats succeed in passing JCPA, legacy outlets could form cartels in negotiations with online platforms that host their content.
While Democrats claim that these negotiations would focus on payment and content distribution, conservative censorship is the left’s true goal. In a 2022 Senate Judiciary markup of JCPA, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) offered an amendment limiting the antitrust exemption to payment discussions. The Cruz amendment was simple: if media cartels discussed content moderation in negotiations with Big Tech, their antitrust exemption would be voided. After the committee approved the Cruz amendment, JCPA sponsor Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) pulled the bill from consideration, proving that the left’s goal is more about controlling speech than “saving journalism.”
California’s agreement with Google is a massive cash transfer from the platform and California taxpayers to government-approved news outlets. While progressives say that their goal is saving local journalism, their real goal is propping up failing gatekeepers to squash dissenting voices. Replicating this model in other states or nationwide would be disastrous for conservative and independent outlets that tens of millions of Americans rely on to stay informed.
Tom Hebert is the Director of Competition and Regulatory Policy at Americans for Tax Reform and executive director of the Open Competition Center.