By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-12-21
Facebook and Google’s market power, especially over digital advertising, has translated to a potential “extinction level event” for local news operations, broadcast, online, and print.
That was the underlying message of House Antitrust Subcommittee chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) at a hearing Friday (March 12) on “Saving a Free and Diverse Press.”
Cicilline said his bill to give news content producers an antitrust exemption to negotiate collectively with the largest platforms (the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, or JCPA) was not a substitute for structural remedies to address the market power of a Google or Facebook, but was a short-term solution to save trustworthy journalism before it is gone forever.
A Senate version of the bill has been introduced by Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). » Read More