The two biggest parasites in the digital world, Facebook and Google, have offered a sop to online publishers: we will allow the free articles of yours, that we exploit to make our money, offer a means of subscribing to your publications.
And for that, online publishers are supposed to genuflect and be grateful.
It's akin to a highway robber holding up a man and telling him, "I will only take your money, I will not inflict any bodily harm on you." For that, the man is supposed to weep with gratitude and praise his attacker.
In what is one of the most hypocritical statements of the digital age — and there have been some whoppers, mind you — Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg wrote recently: "If people subscribe after seeing news stories on Facebook, the money will go directly to publishers who work hard to uncover the truth, and Facebook won't take a cut."
{loadposition sam08}For that, online publishers are supposed to shout: "Hallelujah!"
This kid uses material that he did not pay a red cent for and makes billions. Then he makes a statement like the one above. That is chutzpah as the original creator of the word intended it to mean.
Google is not far behind. Its founders, Sergei Brin and Larry Page, keep their public appearances to the minimum and have their own patsies like Sundar Pichai and Eric Schmidt who appear in public and make soothing noises that mean nothing.
But their mentality is the same: make money off other people's creativeness and then act as though they are doing the world a favour. One could be accused of making the biggest understatement of all time in calling them parasites.
However they are not the only hypocrites paying lip service to "saving" journalism. The Australian Senate is in the process of holding what it calls an inquiry into the future of public interest journalism; the sub-title of the inquiry is "Impact of search engines, social media and disinformation on journalism in Australia".
So far, there have been two hearings, the second being on 21 August. The output from each comes to about 70 A4 pages. Both Google and Facebook have been repeatedly identified as major causes for the disappearance of thousands of journalist jobs.
But the august bunch of senators who were at the most recent session of the inquiry — Sam Dastyari, Lisa Singh, Nick Xenophon and Sarah Hanson-Young — are unwilling to consider a levy on the two companies for the money they make for nothing.
And there are no government representatives there. I guess the ruling MPs and senators are reluctant to fight for journalism — the same thing that enables many low-lifes to get their messages out — because they would then be unable to land a cushy job with this corporation or that when they are voted out some time in the future.
Mind you, it is very doubtful if any of Dastyari, Hanson-Young, Singh and Xenophon would back away from supporting a law that decreed the payment of fines by those who download films or any other copyrighted material from the Web. It is essentially the same thing – using someone else's copyrighted content gratis.
But there is always one rule for the individual and an entirely different one for behemoths that steal in broad daylight. Did any of the bankers who caused the global financial crisis go to jail?
The inquiry is a farce because the people who are called to testify before are mostly a bunch of rent-seekers. I am yet to see a single journalist (a real one) who has been affected by the daylight robbery practised by Google and Facebook being called up to tell the truth about what it feels like to be unable to pay one's bills because a giant corporation stole one's lunch.
But like all inquiries, I am sure the senators will create a nicely bound report, present it at a press conference at which the mainstream media will be present, and then hold their peace forever.
And, don't forget, there is just a chance than one in a thousand of those "subscribe to our publication" buttons so graciously displayed by Facebook and Google will bring in some moolah. Man, I am an ungrateful son-of-a-bitch, aren't I?