
Google is threatening to drive a knife into the heart of journalism in its home state, with the justification that greedy "media conglomerates and hedge funds" are to blame. Some of its arguments have genuine merit, but Google, which made $300 billion last year, looks more like a shameless bully than anything else.
California's Journalism Preservation Act—which would charge Google a percentage of its advertising revenue from links to California news publications—hasn't passed yet. That hasn't stopped Google from preemptively "removing links to California news websites" and "pausing further investments in the California news ecosystem," according to a sorrowful post from Google News' VP Jaffer Zaidi.