Here are three tweetstorms — nay, typhoons — I engaged in lately, conveniently in one spot, adapted for Medium.
On Ben Smith’s New York Times column about protectionist legislation in Australia trying to get platforms to hand money to media companies:
Oh FFS, no, the news business crushed itself by relying on protectionism over innovation. Ben Smith goes all Murdoch & endorses Australia’s digital Stamp Act. This isn’t media criticism. It’s lobbying. “Big Tech Has Crushed the News Business.”
It’s as if Ben never worked at BuzzFeed, a company that built its one-time fortune exploiting the internet reality about which he is now willfully ignorant. No, Google & FB are not taking content; they are sending audience to publishers unable to build valued relationships.
Of course, he writes this from the safety of one of the companies — like WaPo & WSJ — that get virtually all the subscription revenue to be had in the U.S. Maybe they should share some with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, eh?
By the logic of this lobbying campaign, PanAm should still be paying Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. Tesla should be paying Exxon. The entitlement.
I’m on record saying Facebook succumbing to the blackmail of Murdoch and the pols in his pocket is a bad idea. This will not save the old, dying…
