(The Center Square) – California Gov. Gavin Newsom quietly signed a bill effectively creating an annual $10 million state media subsidy fund, with another $10 million pledged this year by Google and overseen by the governor-appointed director of the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.
Media experts warned the California Civic Media Fund subsidy program created by Senate Bill 155 would damage press independence by incentivizing more favorable coverage of the government to access the subsidies, which could fund hundreds of newsroom positions each year.
“I would doubt the government would fund reporters who do an investigation of high speed rail, the Economic Development Department, or any sort of administration action if the positions are being funded by the government,” said Steven Greenhut, senior fellow for the Free Cities Center at Pacific Research Institute and former news editor, in an interview with The Center Square. “It’s such a direct conflict of interest, because the media is mostly going to be covering the government.”
Greenhut also drew parallels to the perceived pro-government biases of National Public Radio and the Public Broadcast Service resulting from its reliance on taxpayer funding.
When asked about these concerns and why the governor signed the bill, Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos replied with an email statement, saying, “Thanks for reaching out. The signature speaks for itself.”
The Newsom appointee who would oversee the program, Dee Dee Myers, is a longtime Democratic political operative, and previously served as White House press secretary for President Bill Clinton. Myers was later a consultant on the hit political melodrama The West Wing, whose character C. J. Cregg was inspired by Myers’ role at the White House.
The bill authorized up to $10 million per year in state funding, contingent on matching funding from private entities — earlier this year Google committed $10 million to the fund, bringing the total for the coming year to $20 million.
Greenhut flagged Google’s contribution as creating another possible conflict of interest, in addition to the apparent lack of mandated transparency in the grant program’s funding allocations.
“There’s no explicit public reporting requirement, and the issue of if Google is contributing, are you as a reporter going to be critical of Google?” Greenhut said. “There are all these issues.”
