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The importance of a free and robust press
Dear Editor,
A free and robust press is vital to democracy. The latest example? How about the story broken by ProPublica alleging that large institutional landlords collude to fix rents nationwide, in California, San Mateo County and Redwood City through an algorithm called Real Page. As a result of this investigative reporting, both California and the U.S. Justice Departments filed antitrust lawsuits against the alleged colluding landlords last week. (Allegations of Rent Hike Collusion, Aug. 27, 2024, Bay Area News Group, Kate Talerico). ProPublica is a nonprofit created in 2007 when large internet companies were just beginning to post the content created by major news organizations without compensating them. This year, as in years past, the California Legislature and the Governor’s Office grappled with making internet companies pay for the content they take from news organizations. Unfortunately, the internet companies are just too big and powerful to be held to account. The deal cut between Google and California last week will reimburse news organizations $250 million over 10 years. This may sound like a lot, but it was described by the Media Guild of the West as, “a total rout.” (San Jose Mercury News internal affairs, Aug. 25, 2024). Legislators respond to political will. Let’s all make sure we let them know how much we value robust investigative reporting. It does not come for free. Large internet companies should pay for the news content they feature on their platforms, or it will disappear.
Kaia Eakin,
Redwood City
Telephone wait time
Think about how many people in the U.S. are on telephone-hold at any moment during working hours. It is not unusual nowadays for corporations to keep callers on hold for well over an hour. Think of the man hours of time wasted. I would bet at any give time there are well over one million people holding, and in many cases, they are trying to buy something, i.e, transfer their money to the pockets of the corporations that are wasting their time and running up their phone bills.
The solution is genuine cutthroat competition and that means vigorous antitrust action by our federal government. Let’s face it, free-market capitalism can accomplish much but ONLY if it is truly competitive. Even the conservative economist Frederich Hyak made that crystal clear in his book, “The Road to Serfdom.”
Don Barnby
Spruce Avenue, Menlo Park
