This is terrible. So Google is trying to get out of the monopoly accusations by bribing the mainstream media. They will make a deal and Google will get its monopole, and the media too.<p>I don't know if anyone here heard about the "Google tax" in Spain [1], but here are my worst fears: Google will consolidate its monopole, and the mainstream press too.<p>Here's how it went in Spain. One could go to Google News to get a glance of the news. One could find mainstream press there, international or otherwise, alongside with independent media and bloggers.<p>So the government in Spain (or, actually, the media lobby?) creates a law tailored to tax Google, and Google just cancels the service. How did that turn out?<p>People go now directly to the mainstream media sites, and independent media are now completely out of the game. Mainstream papers lost some readers, but made the competency almost invisible in the process.<p>If this trend goes on, and Google and the mainstream media make "peace deals", it means the same big players as always will get a monopoly on Google services, while Google will secure popular contents for their own services (Google News, Android News widgets, and so on).<p>We all lose in media plurality and independence. In the future we will be worse informed.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_tax" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_tax</a>