California Democrats Save Failing Traditional Media

Big tech and traditional media have a lot in common: suppressing conservative views.

California Democrats have engineered a deal that requires Google and California taxpayers to fork out hundreds of millions of dollars to state-approved news organizations. If Democrats replicate this unholy alliance between Big Tech and traditional media nationwide, it will be open season on 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 before Big Tech platforms emerged. Traditional media have no one to blame for their woes but themselves. If they were still interested in reporting facts, rather than regurgitating progressive talking points, Americans would still read and trust them.

The digitization of news and the rise of free-speech social media platforms like Elon Musk’s X have led Americans to seek information outside traditional channels. Progressives, nostalgic for the good old days when they had complete control over public discourse, want to rescue failing newsrooms that do little more than repackage Democratic press releases. To hide their true intentions, progressives claim to be 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 news platforms to pay newsrooms to link to their content. The CJPA, modeled on similar “link tax” laws in Canada and Australia, amounts to a government cash transfer from platforms to left-wing newsrooms supported by the government. Whatever happened to the independent press?

Instead of passing the 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 AI “accelerator.” California taxpayers are happy to fork out $70 million, which will result in a whopping $250 million going to failing news organizations and journalists by 2030. When that money runs out, Democrats will go back to the well for more.

Conservative media outlets operating in California may salivate at the thought of getting a piece of the pie. Yet Democrats have engineered the deal to ensure that conservatives get none. The bailout money will go through a “News Transformation Fund,” which pledges to use the funds to support “underrepresented groups.” The left-leaning University of California administers the News Transformation Fund, which counts unions and far-left newsrooms as members. Does anyone doubt the direction the News Transformation Fund will take to transform news?

Democrats are actively working to nationalize the bailouts of their favorite media companies, California style. Democrats have repeatedly tried to pass the Journalism Competition Preservation Act, which would exempt establishment media companies from antitrust law. If Democrats succeed in passing the JCPA, traditional media outlets could form cartels in negotiations with online platforms that host their content.

While Democrats say these negotiations will focus on payments and content distribution, the left’s real goal is conservative censorship. In the 2022 Senate JCPA bill, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) offered an amendment that would limit the antitrust exemption to discussions of payments. Cruz’s amendment was simple: If media cartels discussed content moderation in negotiations with Big Tech, their antitrust exemption would be invalidated. After the committee approved Cruz’s amendment, JCPA sponsor Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) withdrew the bill from consideration, demonstrating that the left’s goal is to control speech rather than “save journalism.”

California’s deal with Google is a massive transfer of cash from the platform and California taxpayers to government-approved news outlets. While progressives claim their goal is to save local journalism, their real goal is to prop up inept gatekeepers to stifle dissenting voices. Replicating this model in other states or across the country would be disastrous for conservative and independent outlets that tens of millions of Americans rely on for news.

Tom Hebert is director of competition and regulatory policy at Americans for Tax Reform and executive director of the Open Competition Center.