LAST WEEK there was a ray of hope for local journalism. The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) was included in Congress’ annual defense authorization bill.
This bi-partisan bill (Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker is a co-sponsor) would force Google and Facebook into mandatory arbitration to determine fair compensation for the use of local news on these platforms.
Spotify has to pay musicians. But Google and Facebook don’t have to pay journalists. It’s just not right.
It didn’t take long for Google and Facebook to swing into action. Facebook announced it would delete all news from its platform if the legislation passed. Google was more subtle. Hundreds of Google-funded think tanks started releasing “studies” exposing supposed flaws in the legislation. The U. S. Senate backed down, fearful the controversy would hinder passage of the defense bill. Google and Facebook won again. It was so easy for them to do.
That’s what happens when you let two companies become ruthless monopolies, two of the richest companies in the history of the world, and give them unlimited power to manipulate public opinion.
J. P. Morgan and Standard Oil, Carnegie Mellon and the railroads, these titans were pipsqueaks compared to the power of Google and Facebook. Having a monopoly on oil and trains is one thing. Having a monopoly on public discourse is far, far more powerful and far more dangerous.
The JCPA gives small newspapers, radio stations and television stations an eight-year exemption from the antitrust laws so they can bargain collectively against Google and Facebook. But it was quashed. Google and Facebook don’t want anybody to have power but themselves. Here’s the absurdity: All the small newspapers, radio and television stations combined, are only one one-hundredth the size of Google and Facebook.
The question is this: What happened to the application of the antitrust laws when it comes to Google and Facebook? How has our government allowed two companies to take over American media?
This scary scenario was created by Congress when they exempted internet platforms from our libel laws. Traditional media is responsible for every word they produce. Any damaging falsehoods are subject to libel and slander laws, common laws that were a thousand years in the making.
But Congress decided in 1996 that the poor Internet companies needed a helping hand. They were too small and fragile to have to fight possible libel lawsuits. So, for the first time in human history, Congress exempted a segment of the media from any accountability to our legal system. They got a free pass.
Dear readers, if I were allowed to publish anything I wanted in my newspapers, without any regard for truthfulness or who I wrongfully hurt, I could, if evilly inclined, sell more newspapers than I could ever print.
That’s exactly where we are with these Internet platforms. Facebook and Google have no liability for what is on their platform. Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1996 saw to that. Congress created a monster. It is destroying legitimate journalism in America. And when journalists fight back, they are squashed like a bug. The monster Congress created is out of its cage. It now controls Congress. Freedom is at stake.
So Facebook can allow a terrorist group to use its platform to mount a terrorist attack, killing hundreds, and Facebook is immune from legal liability.
Voice of America reports: “Relatives of people killed in terrorist attacks in France and Turkey had sued Google, Twitter and Facebook. They accused the companies of helping terrorists spread their message and radicalize new recruits.
“Nohemi Gonzalez, was a 23-year-old U.S. citizen studying in Paris. The Cal State Long Beach student was one of 130 people killed in Islamic State group attacks in November 2015.
“Gonzalez's relatives sued Google, which owns YouTube, saying the platform had helped the Islamic State group by allowing it to post hundreds of videos that helped incite violence and recruit potential supporters. Gonzalez's relatives said that the company's computer algorithms recommended those videos to viewers most likely to be interested in them.
“But a judge dismissed the case and a federal appeals court upheld the ruling. Under U.S. law — specifically Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — internet companies are generally exempt from liability for the material users post on their networks.”
It’s not just terrorist attacks. Child suicide encouragement groups, vile pornography, any horrible thing you can think of can be paraded and exhibited on these dominant platforms without any legal accountability. This is nuts!
As I told Roger Wicker, if Congress would repeal Section 230 of the Communications Act traditional media would be in no need of Congressional help. Make Facebook and Google live up to the same legal standard required of traditional media. Just repeal the bad laws that created this horrible situation.
But that’s a pipe dream. It’s too late. The genie is out of the bottle. The platforms are far too powerful to allow Congress to destroy their monopoly. Meanwhile, our privacy is destroyed and Big Tech knows everything about all of us. (And they are happy to cooperate with the government on this.)
Media expert Penny Abernathy, writing in the State of the Local News 2022, states: “Newspapers are continuing to vanish at a rapid rate. An average of more than two a week are disappearing. Since 2005, the country has lost more than a fourth of its newspapers (2,500) and is on track to lose a third by 2025. The country lost more than 360 newspapers between the months of late 2019 and the end of May 2022. All but 24 of those papers were weeklies, serving communities ranging in size from a few hundred people to tens of thousands. Most communities that lose a newspaper do not get a digital or print replacement. The country has 6,380 surviving papers: 1,230 dailies and 5,150 weeklies.
“Digital alternatives remain scarce, despite an increase in corporate and philanthropic funding. Over the past two years, the number of new digital-only state and local news sites, 64, slightly exceeded the number of sites that went dark.”
America has half as many journalists as it did 20 years ago.
Just look at the Clarion-Ledger. Hardly any local news. If not for the charity of Jim Barksdale funding Mississippi Today, there would be little state news.
Emmerich Newspapers produces 1,000 local articles every week across the state — by far the most of any company. But without relief, our days are numbered. At that point, there will simply be no local news other than rumors and hearsay posted on Facebook.
In addition to the JCPA, there is a second bill that has bi-partisan support in Congress — the Local Journalism Sustainability Act (LJSA). This bill would provide for payroll tax credits to help fund journalists. If Google and Facebook are too powerful to be forced to pay for the news they steal, then taxpayers will need to foot the bill. The alternative to these two pieces of legislation is the end of local journalism as this country has known it for a hundred years. It would be a tragedy of profound consequences for the future of our country.
