Thread by @jeffjarvis

Google just announced a deal with News Corp. I hate this. It means that media blackmail works. It sets a terrible precedent for the net. It gives Google yet more power over news. It is a win for the devil, Murdoch. I really hate that.

I will bet you that Google News Showcase traffic will be minimal. That's not the point. It's just an envelope stuffed with cash. Politicians were the bagmen.

What angers me most is that *journalism* organizations had *no* shame and *no* transparency about their conflict of interest, cashing in their political capital to buy political favor and conspiracy to blackmail the tech companies. Journalism *never* reported its conflict.

In the end, Google & Facebook have a big bucket of baksheesh that will go to old proprietors and their shareholders (not journalists; don't fool yourselves), keeping them around a little longer and keeping upstart competitors out of the market.

Google & FB won't change; they will maintain unread news features as loss makers to pay off the publishers. The publishers won't change because they got a little more money. Startups will suffer. News will suffer. Society will suffer. Well done, everyone.

And I am disappointed that the current proprietors of the net, Google and Facebook, did not fight hard enough for the principles of an open internet. I get it. They're companies. They have the money to make this go away. But the net will suffer.

I don't want to hear any whining about antitrust from media. They just made the platforms more powerful and profited from it. And in the US, news media is an oligopoly of a few hedge funds. It's big v big.

And Australia? You're fucked. Murdoch is more powerful than ever and your politicians are more in his pocket than ever. And now he has brought a Fox News in the form of Sky News to your shores; it's just as bad. Buy fences around Parliament now.

England? You're fucked, too. Murdoch is bringing his Fox News to you and Ofcom is about to be taken over by the worst of the news industry.

Canada? You're fucked, too. You don't have Murdoch, but you have a news oligopoly of incompetent owners and your politicians are in league with them.

America? We've long been fucked. 6 January was Murdoch's denouement. It wasn't the internet that took us down the rat hole. It was Murdoch, Fox news, and talk radio that ruined a generation or two (older generations, that is).

The net was supposed to be our means to break the hold of mass media. Mass media & old pols--the white men still in charge--beat down the net's current proprietors. But there'll be new ones. I take a very long view. In Gutenberg years, it's 1475. The Reformation is yet to begin.

The Reformation will not come from tech companies. It will not come from VCs. It will not come from old journalism. It will not come from bros. It has already begun in #BLM et al, in voices too long suppressed fighting to be heard. Their racial Reformation has begun.

To those who danced with the devil, I ask, is the tune worth the price of your soul?

And by the way, Australia is not dropping its awful Code. And other countries are threatening to copy it. This was in no way a victory for the net. It was a capitulation because journalism doesn't much matter to any of the parties involved.
ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/josh…

I'm not done. Just spoke with a journalist and pointed out that none of this blackmail loot will end up benefitting journalists. It will go to rapacious hedge funds and their ilk.

Also, good luck trying to convince Google and Facebook not to include disinformation from Fox News in its feeds when they are paying for said disinformation.

When I get accused to defending Google and Facebook, I say, no, I'm defending the net and its freedoms. Note my anger at the platforms today for not defending the net. They're just companies, I know. I had hoped for something better of them, at least enlightened self-interest.