Censorship-obsessed Google seems to be buying off California news outlets with a bombshell deal to fund and influence the state’s journalism enterprise in the middle of an election year.
California was reportedly considering a bill to force Big Tech platforms to pay certain media outlets for the right to share news, and a second bill to tax digital ads. But California Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, are declaring victory after getting Google to commit to a $250 million bargain with the state.
Some groups are criticizing the deal, which will provide hundreds of millions of dollars from Google, taxpayers and possibly other sources to shape the future of journalism, according to National Review. And if Google’s and California’s sordid records are any indication, that future is undoubtedly marked by another radical lurch leftward.
Google has already spent years interfering in elections on behalf of radical Democrats, as multiple MRC Free Speech America studies revealed, but now it could have an even more direct effect on the news citizens read at the state level. Indeed, Google’s search has suppressed Independent and Republican presidential candidates and boosted Democrat nominee Kamala Harris.
MRC VP for Free Speech Dan Schneider sounded the alarm, “Gavin Newsom and Google have come up with a seditious plan to pre-write the future. Through this Berkeley-based initiative, they will infect every reporter with an invisible prejudice through the power of AI. They are using Google’s resources to dictate tomorrow’s history today.” Schneider continued, “This is beyond Orwellian. With a tiny portion of its annual revenue, Google is going to use every reporter and news outlet to remake society in its own warped image.”
National Review reported that the deal, supported both by Google (maker of Gemini) and ChatGPT maker OpenAI, particularly focuses on providing artificial intelligence (AI) to journalists for experimentation. National Review noted that “[s]ome journalist groups” are concerned AI could replace journalists rather than assisting them. But Google’s checkered history with AI makes this development even worse.
The leftist bias of Google’s Gemini AI chatbot is nothing short of extreme. Between March and July, MRC researchers prompted Gemini and received ten responses clearly illustrating the AI’s anti-American bias. For instance, the chatbot asserted the Star-Spangled Banner is a source of “potential offensiveness” and cited a report from the tyrannical Chinese Communist government to argue America’s constitutional republic might not be the best system. Gemini has also been slammed for its anti-white bias in its image generation feature, depicting Africans and Asians even when prompted for Vikings.
Besides the $62.5 million for the AI accelerator, the University of California, Berkeley and its Graduate School of Journalism will be in charge of distributing more funding to California news organizations through the News Transformation Fund, according to National Review. Unions including Pacific Media Workers Guild, Media Guild of the West and the NewsGuild-CWA, reportedly slammed the “disastrous” deal with Google, “The future of journalism should not be decided in backroom deals.” State senator Steve Glazer (D) also criticized the deal.
National Review further reported that a number of factors, including declining credibility and a struggling economy, have caused some news outlets in California to cut staff or shut down. While Google will be able to provide the needed money in California, its history of censorship and election interference in favor of the radical left make its objectivity in this new deal highly questionable.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Google and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment and provide an equal platform for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
