Techdirt reports that newspapers are already operating as if they’ve been given an anti-trust exemption as they meet secretly to fix prices for online access to their precious content.
When discovered, they said not to worry, we were just discussing “how best to support and preserve the traditions of newsgathering that will serve the American public.”
Uh-huh. And, yes, they had a couple antitrust lawyers on hand to clear some potantial mine fields.
According to The Atlantic, the #1 topic was “Journalism Online: Presentation on proposed service to charge for access to newspaper content and to license that content that (sic) online aggregators.”
Another closed door, smoked-filled session was billed as, “Fair Syndication Consortium/Attributor,” described as a “presentation on technology/service to track content on the Web and to extract payments from third-parties and ad networks that have appropriated newspaper content.”
Here’s the tit for tat. Just like the Chrysler dealership closings, and GE’s buy-in, here’s how it will work: Newspapers will collude to fix prices and Obama and Nancy Pelosi will turn the other way so long as surviving media supports the Democratic agenda.