www.montereycountynow.com august 8-14, 2024 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 19 The news for Google has been merciless the last couple of months. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer monopolist. On Monday, Aug. 5, Judge Amit P. Mehta sided with the U.S. Justice Department and ruled that Google unfairly used its market dominance to stifle competition in internet search, violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. Mehta wrote in his decision, “After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” The penalty is still to come, and whether that will include massive fines or selling off parts of its business, the reverberations will be far reaching. “This victory against Google is an historic win for the American people,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “No company—no matter how large or influential—is above the law.” In April, as the California State Legislature was taking up Assembly Bill 886, known as the California Journalism Preservation Act, Google preemptively blocked access to some California news webpages to try to intimidate both the media and the duly elected representatives. It didn’t work so well for them then, either. Assemblymember Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, says, “A thriving and robust press is core to the health of American democracy. Local journalists share factual information, keeping us informed. Harmful tactics by Big Tech to intimidate and threaten California’s media outlets is plain wrong. We cannot look away from these challenges to our democratic values.” Speaking during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in June, State Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Merced, said, “I support this bill and will vote for it. I love the news…news makes you think.” Caballero chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, which will hear AB 886 next, despite lobbying efforts by the tech industry to squash it. The landscape in journalism in 2024 is one we’ve never witnessed before. The demand for accurate, trustworthy, local information has never been greater, and the economic infrastructure that supports the industry has never been more fragile. Readers in Monterey County who we serve rely on the journalism that originates from skilled reporters and editors in this building. Many of the readers, however, access that copyrighted content via Facebook and Google, and the advertising revenue generated by our content on those platforms does not get passed back to the newspaper. AB 886 would ensure news publications in California are fairly and directly compensated by Big Tech companies for the journalism they produce. As news consumption has moved online, Google and Facebook have become the de facto gatekeepers of journalism. It’s time for big tech to pay market value for the content they siphon from local news publishers. Doing so will help preserve vital local journalism. Anya Schiffrin and Haaris Mateen, professors at Columbia and the University of Houston, respectively, published the results of a working paper they co-wrote with three economists to estimate the value that news content contributes to revenues at Meta and Google. They say the number is $11.9-$13.9 billion per year. “Unsurprisingly, by keeping the cost of goods sold (news) down, Google and Meta have grown rich off the advertising revenue they reap from attracting the world’s eyeballs to their sites,” they wrote. California’s share of that pie is over $1.5 billion per year. The CJPA would require Big Tech platforms to directly compensate publishers based on the number of journalists in their newsrooms, not the amount of web traffic. The bill would not involve the state distributing a single dollar of tax money. It requires that operations with more than five journalists (or freelance equivalents) spend 70 percent of the money on journalists—it would increase the number of reporters in California communities. The coming weeks might be the perfect time for Google to do some reputation management. But judging by the ad campaign that Google and its compatriots in the Computer & Communications Industry Association launched this past week attacking AB 886, it may take the California Legislature to get the monopolist from Mountain View to live up to its original credo: Don’t be evil. Erik Cushman is the Weekly’s publisher. Reach him at erik@montereycountynow.com. Do No Evil It’s time for Big Tech to pay journalists for the journalism that they produce. By Erik Cushman Check’s in the Mail…Squid loyally checks the sea snail-mail box daily, hoping to find a postcard from Rocky the rockfish or Flapjack the octopus. Usually, alas, it’s just full of bills. Sometimes, instead of a bill, there’s a role reversal. In the case of Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, 80 people or business entities received a check from the district in the past 11 years, but never cashed it. Presumably it went out with the recycling, sight unseen. Squid only knows about the uncashed checks because government code requires MPWMD to publish a list of said checks, and the list ran for two weeks in the back of the Monterey County Weekly. There, Squid found some familiar names: Quality Inn Monterey is missing $100, while Carmel Wayfarer Inn has had $2,580 on the line since 2014. Some individuals are sitting on a lot of money (such as a 2016 check for $1,232 to Samit Patel) while for others, like former Seaside mayor Felix Bachofner, it’s just a little ($4.81, dated 2017). But most surprising of all is that California American Water, MPWMD’s chief antagonist—the district is pursuing a public buyout of the private water utility company—also has an unclaimed check dated 2020. Maybe the piddly amount, just $5, made Cal Am officials think it wasn’t worth their while, but Squid can’t help but hear the slow drip of money down the drain. Well, just down Cal Am’s drain. If the checks remain unclaimed, MPWMD gets to keep the cash. Past Due…Speaking of who gets to keep the cash, Squid oozed over to Monterey County Superior Court the other day and got caught up in some big numbers. Specifically, by allegations from Deacon Construction LLC against Cannery Row’s newest establishment, Tipsy Putt. The new sportsbar-meets-indoor-miniature-golf-course concept opened in February in the space that was formerly Cannery Row Brewing Company. In the year leading up to the much-anticipated opening, Deacon had a construction contract for $1,278,914—Squid’s seen the contract language in black and white, because it’s attached to the company’s court case. On July 30, Deacon sued Tipsy Putt, alleging the bar has failed to pay nearly half of the contract amount, $599,561.25 (plus interest). On its website, the 40-year-old, Sacramento-based construction company claims it “is relationship-oriented and views projects from a stakeholder’s perspective.” Squid is unsurprised that perspective has limits—like paying bills due. The team at Tipsy Putt declined to comment, but maybe they’ll try to imitate MPWMD’s style as noted above: Check’s in the mail. It might be cheaper than going to court. the local spin SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. “We cannot look away from these challenges.” Send Squid a tip: squid@montereycountynow.com
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