FREE SPEECH
There’s a movement afoot to hold Big Tech accountable for its role in gutting local news outlets – and it’s being led by local news outlets. More than 200 newspapers all over the country have quietly become plaintiffs in antitrust cases filed in 2021 against Google and Facebook, alleging the two giants have unjustly monopolized digital ad revenue. Publications include the
LA Weekly, West Seattle Herald, Lagniappe Weekly in Alabama, Des Moines News and Marietta Daily Journal in Georgia. The lawsuits have been consolidated in the Southern District of New York, with a case filed by Associated Newspapers against Google. Associated Newspapers is the parent company of outlets including The Daily Mail, and alleges that Google punishes publishers in ranking their stories in searches if they don’t generate enough advertising revenue for the search engine. Google has denied the allegations but the impact of more suits by more newspapers may begin to reveal just how much these tech giants have eaten into newspaper earnings. At least some of the suits seek to recover damages for past losses.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“He was a pretty despicable human but I grew to appreciate his writing.” - Janet Bruman, a member of the Monterey Peninsula Dickens Fellowship, speaking about Charles Dickens (read 831 story).
GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK
GOOD:
If you’ve been on the Rec Trail in Monterey near the Naval Postgraduate School lately, you’ve probably noticed a new, wooden staircase climbing up the dunes toward the beach: That project is being built by the U.S. Navy, which owns the land seaward of its NPS campus, to provide better access to the beach and, importantly, to protect two endangered species, Monterey spineflower and Monterey gilia. Both species have a shrinking habitat generally, but a thriving habitat on the Navy’s dunes. The seeds for those plants lay dormant until conditions are optimal (springtime), and the staircase will allow those seeds to lay undisturbed until then. The project was in planning from 2013-2020, and is expected to be completed in June 2022. John Hoellwarth, a spokesperson for Naval Support Activity Monterey, which houses NPS, does not yet know when it will be open to the public.
GREAT:
We are celebrating a big victory for Sam Buttrey, a professor of operations research at the Naval Postgraduate School, who on Dec. 17, destroyed 14 other professors in the nationwide first edition of Jeopardy! The 2021 Professors Tournament. Keeping it cool to the last moment, Buttrey closed with a dose of French post-impressionism, correctly indicating Georges Seurat as the man who died in 1891 and whom the catalog of MoMA’s first exhibition called “man of science” and “inventor of method.” Buttrey took home $100,000, but he seems to be only warming up and will be featured in the finale of champions, to air in 2022. His win comes on the heels of another local Jeopardy! appearance, by Carmel High graduate Emily Robinson, who finished second on Oct. 29. “Quite a showing by our small county,” says her father, Glenn Robinson, who happens to be Buttrey’s colleague at NPS.