There’s a great scene in HBO’s classic television series The Sopranos: two mafia wiseguys enter a Starbucks-type coffee franchise and attempt to give the manager an offer he can’t refuse. Either he pays their “merchant’s protective cooperative” or they and their Italian-American compatriots will come back to break a window, or worse. The manager, without breaking a sweat, tells them that . . .
his superiors own 10,000 stores across the country and will simply replace a window without thinking about it and will replace him if he’s caught stealing to pay protection fees.
The two would-be extortionists leave empty-handed and one says to the other, ‘It’s over for the little guy.’
This past month we saw a similar type of story play out in the media landscape, as Facebook firewalled Australian news sites from its platform. This blackout also inflicted plenty of collateral damage, blocking public health websites and other unintended targets. The drastic move was taken in response to the Australian government’s newly drafted legislation to make Facebook (and Google) pay a fee to provide links to their content.
Hilariously, Canadian news organizations did a stunt earlier in the year where they left the covers of their publications nearly blank, with a pitch from News Media Canada, the organization lobbying the government on their behalf, at the bottom stating “These corporate giants benefit from the news content produced by Canadian journalists and publishers—without paying for it.”
Here’s an interesting tidbit that these dolts didn’t mention, they shared their “levelling the digital playing field” lobbying campaign on Facebook, the platform that’s supposedly stealing their livelihood. Plenty of news organizations willingly post their content to various social media companies, or use search engine optimization to bring their content to the top of Google searches. These print media dinosaurs are now turning around and demanding that online entities pay them for their content, even though they use these online tools to reach their audiences.
Interestingly, this legislative offensive doesn’t touch sites like Kijiji, or Facebook’s marketplace, which have brought about the end of the printed classified page, another previously-significant revenue stream for legacy media. Why not? Not enough money in it?
Also, why just focus on two specific companies, when news gets shared widely on sites like Reddit or Twitter, among many others? Are they next on the list?
This whole idea that Facebook and Google owe these newspaper crooks anything is ridiculous. Much like the defeated gangsters in the TV show, they find themselves in a world they no longer understand or belong in.
The Australian formula, which Canada is reportedly modelling it’s own coming legislation off of, was crafted to benefit Rupert Murdoch’s empire and other chains Down Under. What it boils down to is forcing Silicon Valley tech giants to the negotiating table with Australia’s media mafia, whose ownership is just as, if not more concentrated than Canada’s. Both Google and Facebook have agreed to negotiate some kind of payment structure with these scumbags, but will even that be enough to save them?
Torstar and Postmedia, Canada’s two dominant newspaper chains, have done more to destroy local news in this country than anyone. A three-year investigation into these behemoths’ anti-competitive practices was shelved earlier this year, despite clear evidence that they were engaged in monopolistic deals. They traded 41 newspapers back in 2017 and shortly closed all except six, in an effort to eliminate competition in certain regional markets. Hell, they were openly sending each other emails about who would have to axe which newsroom.
We’re supposed to trust in the government lobbying effort that they’ve helped bankroll through News Media Canada, just because it targets detestable groups like Zuckerberg et al?
Recently it was announced that TorStar would be entering the world of online gambling to pay for their journalistic efforts, which just shows you that all these dinosaurs care about is eking out a little more profit.
This is not to say that the Silicon Valley titans like Google or Facebook shouldn’t be taxed in some way or held accountable for the content on their platforms, they absolutely should. The amount of control that these entities have over the internet is frightening.
However, following the legislative lead of these mainstream media giants isn’t going to abate the decline of local news outlets and content across Canada.
The media elite have already done their best to shutter the little papers covering small communities across the country, and laid off journalists and editors to protect their executive bonuses.
An independent, professional press covering the local meetings and municipal issues is something that’s sorely needed, particularly in rural regions like ours. It’s not going to appear after backroom deals with tech companies, it’s going to appear when media folks prioritize their audience instead of daydreaming about the golden years when they were the gatekeepers of both content and advertising.
Caleb Nickerson
