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News publishers' alliance calls on feds to investigate Google for limiting California links

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News publishers' alliance calls on feds to investigate Google for limiting California links

The News/Media Alliance, a journalism trade organization and advocacy group, on Tuesday asked federal government officials to investigate Google after the tech giant said it would limit links to California news outlets in its search results.

The alliance, which represents publishers in the news and magazine industry, said Google’s actions appear “to either be coercive or retaliatory, driven by Google’s opposition to a pending legislative measure in Sacramento.”

The proposed state measure in question, called the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), would require tech companies, including Google, who sell advertising alongside news content to pay news publishers.

In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, News/Media Alliance Chief Executive Danielle Coffey called on regulators to “investigate whether Google is violating federal law in blocking or impeding their ability to find news that they rely upon for their business, their prosperity, their pleasure, their democracy and, sometimes, their lives.”

The Los Angeles Times is a member of the News/Media Alliance.

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Google called the claims in the News/Media Alliance’s letter “baseless” and the CJPA an “unworkable” bill that hurts “small local publishers to benefit large, out-of-state hedge funds.”

“We have proposed reasonable alternatives to CJPA that would increase our support for the California news ecosystem and support Californians’ access to news,” Google said in a statement. “We’ve long said CJPA isn’t the right approach, and we’ve taken a responsible and transparent step to prepare for its possible implementation.”

The FTC and the Justice Department declined to comment.

Google said Friday that it would start to test limiting some users’ access to links from California news outlets and raised concerns in a blog post about the bill, saying it would change its business model.

“We have long said that this is the wrong approach to supporting journalism,” Jaffer Zaidi, vice president of Google’s Global News Partnerships, wrote in a blog post Friday. “If passed, CJPA may result in significant changes to the services we can offer Californians and the traffic we can provide to California publishers.”

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Google would not respond to questions about how many users would be affected by the test, or which California news outlets would be affected.

News organizations in California say they are dealing with declining revenues, in part due to a digital ad market dominated by players like Google, and are struggling to build up their base of digital subscribers. Many news outlets including the L.A. Times, Business Insider and Vice have laid off staff to cut costs.

Under the bill, news outlets would pay at least 70% of the money gained from the legislation back to their staffs. Smaller outlets could pay a smaller percentage.

Google said it has partnered with more than 7,000 global news publishers through its Google News Initiative, including 6,000 journalists in California, but Zaidi said the company was pausing expansion of that initiative “until there’s clarity on California’s regulatory environment.”

During a news event with visiting Norwegian officials Tuesday in the Bay Area, a reporter asked Gov. Gavin Newsom if he had a response to Google taking down California news links.

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“How do I best say this?” Newsom said. “We’re in conversations with the company you referenced. Let’s leave it at that.”

Newsom has not yet taken a position on the California Journalism Preservation Act. It’s common for the governor to refrain from publicly sharing his position on a bill before it reaches his desk, though he has made some exceptions. A spokesperson for the governor said Newsom is engaging with lawmakers about the bill.

“He is continuing to have constructive conversations on this important subject with the Legislature,” said Izzy Gordon, a spokesperson for the governor.

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), who introduced Assembly Bill 886, met with Newsom’s staff last week and “had a very constructive conversation about AB 886,” said Erin Ivie, a spokesperson for Wicks.

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Tales from The Trail: Trump 'unleashed' with criminal trial over

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Tales from The Trail: Trump 'unleashed' with criminal trial over

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Donald Trump is wasting no time in getting back on the campaign trail now that the verdict is in and his historic criminal trial in New York City is over.

The former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee headlined a campaign fundraiser just a couple of hours after being convicted. On Saturday he’ll attend a UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) match in Newark, New Jersey, Fox News confirmed. And on Sunday he’ll sit for a “Fox and Friends” interview.

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“We’ll be fighting hard,” Trump told Fox News’ Brooke Singman in an interview soon after he was found guilty of all 34 felony counts in his case, the first in which a former or current president stood trial.

Trump emphasized that he was excited to get back on the campaign trail. 

2024 SHOWDOWN: TRUMP CASHES IN ON THE CONVICTION IN HIS CRIMINAL TRIAL

Former President Donald Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, May 30, 2024, in New York City. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

On Friday, as he addressed reporters from the atrium of his Trump Tower in New York City, where he launched his first White House bid nine years ago, the former president vowed that “we’re going to fight.”.

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For six weeks, Trump had been confined to the courtroom in Lower Manhattan, which prevented him from campaigning across the country other than on weekends and Wednesdays, when there was no trial.

But Trump’s campaign touted that even during the duration of the trial, the candidate was able to generate “billions of dollars” in media coverage as well as host rallies and fundraisers.

HOW TRUMP GUILTY VERDICTS MAY IMPACT THE 2024 REMATCH WITH BIDEN

The former president’s tenure in court also didn’t seem to put a dent in the slight edge he enjoys in the polls over President Biden in the key battleground states that will likely decide the outcome of their rematch.

And the former president’s top pollsters put out a memo on the eve of the verdict arguing that a conviction would not have any electoral consequences.

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“We are already back to the mission,” the Trump campaign told Fox News Digital on Thursday evening. “President Trump won’t let this sham stop the movement of this campaign to save the nation.”

Donald Trump arrives to Trump Tower after being found guilty

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower in New  York City on May 30, 2024 after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

Longtime Republican strategist David Carney, a veteran of multiple GOP presidential campaigns who is now steering a pro-Trump super PAC, told Fox News that “the show trial is over and Trump is unleashed to campaign at will again. With the miscarriage of justice out in the open, he will have the wind to his back.”

Trump enjoyed an initial burst of fundraising courtesy of his guilty verdicts.

The former president’s campaign announced on Friday morning that it had hauled in $34.8 million in fundraising from 6pm ET to midnight on Thursday, immediately after the verdict went viral.

On Friday evening, the campaign updated their fundraising total – nearly $53 million over 24 hours.

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WHAT TRUMP TOLD FOX NEWS DIGITAL FOLLOWING THE VERDICT

The campaign highlighted in a release that they raked in “a record shattering small dollar fundraising haul and said it was “nearly double the biggest day ever recorded for the Trump campaign on the WinRed platform.” They emphasized that the guilty verdicts “have awakened the MAGA movement like never before.”

Trump will continue his fundraising blitz with a swing at the end of next week in California.

The former president heads to the blue bastion of San Francisco on June 6 for a fundraising dinner hosted by tech investors David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, two of the heaviest hitters in Silicon Valley and co-hosts of the hot “All-In” podcast.

Former President Donald Trump is hitting the campaign trail after the end of his trial

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump Tower, Friday, May 31, 2024, in New York. A day after a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony charges, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee addressed the conviction and likely attempt to cast his campaign in a new light. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson) (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, a Trump ally and potential 2024 running mate who spent time a few years back in San Francisco working for hedge funds in the tech sector, was instrumental in putting the top dollar fundraising together.

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Trump heads south to Beverly Hills for a June 7 fundraiser and a June 8 finance event in Newport Beach in Orange County.

The trip doesn’t mean the Trump campaign thinks overwhelmingly blue California may be in play. 

Instead, Trump’s swing and two fundraisers in the Bay Area on June 5 headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris are the latest proof that the Golden State remains a crucial ATM for campaign cash.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

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TV news ratings surged with Trump felony conviction coverage. Here's how it was covered

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TV news ratings surged with Trump felony conviction coverage. Here's how it was covered

A TV audience of more than 15 million watched Thursday as former President Donald Trump became a convicted felon.

Starting around 1:45 p.m. Pacific, viewing surged for cable news and broadcast networks as they delivered a New York jury’s verdict to convict Trump on 34 felony counts against him in the New York hush money case. Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records related to a payment made to silence adult film actor Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.

Nielsen data showed that the plurality of viewers were tuned into Fox News, which is regularly the most-watched network in the hour, thanks to its popular panel show “The Five.” Fox News stayed with anchor Shannon Bream until about 2:43 p.m. before “The Five” co-hosts weighed in with harsh criticism of the verdict from the network’s pro-Trump commentators.

Fox News averaged 4.7 million viewers from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific, when it typically pulls in around 3 million. The verdict started rolling in at 2:06 p.m.

MSNBC, which had a large on-screen ticker that tallied the number of guilty verdicts as they came in, scored 3.7 million viewers in the hour, nearly doubling its typical turn out for anchor Nicolle Wallace’s program. CNN also saw its audience spike, with 2.6 million viewers

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Preliminary ratings from Nielsen show that ABC had the most viewers among the broadcast networks with 3.4 million viewers for a special report that aired at 1:48 p.m. Pacific. A CBS News special report scored 2.5 million viewers. Data for NBC were not available.

Overall, the total number of people watching on TV will not be on par with such major news events as Biden’s State of the Union address, which drew 32 million viewers in March.

Like many Trump-related events, there is no precedent for viewing of a courtroom verdict on crimes committed by a former president. A verdict was not expected Thursday, and it arrived when most people were still at work or commuting home. Many news consumers were more likely to have streamed video of the outcome on their phones.

In prime time on the East Coast, from 5 to 8 p.m. Pacific, MSNBC’s analysis led by Rachel Maddow won the night with 3.4 million viewers, scoring a rare win over Fox News, which was second with 3 million. CNN averaged 1.25 million viewers. The progressive leaning MSNBC tends to pull in more viewers during times when the news is bad for Trump.

MSNBC was strongest at 8 p.m. Eastern when it featured former Trump attorney Michael Cohen as a guest. Cohen’s testimony was critical to the prosecution’s case against Trump.

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The tone of the coverage broke down according to the tribal leanings of the cable news audience. Conservative Fox News hosts and guests expressed disgust with the verdict, calling it a form of election interference aimed at helping President Biden, who will face off again against Trump in the 2024 presidential contest in November.

“I guess we all need to shop at Banana Republic from now on, because that’s what it feels like, a Banana Republic,” said Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

The court’s work earned praise from the set at MSNBC.

“It’s exactly what America needs right now,” Cohen said in reaction to the verdict. “We need for accountability to be had by all those that break the law. Because, as we like to continuously state, no one is above the law, and today’s verdict demonstrates that.”

Maddow expressed concern over the apparent divide along partisan lines.

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“The Republicans, Trump’s enablers, would have celebrated an acquittal and they’re only condemning a conviction because they don’t like the result,” Maddow said. “I think what is important is for us not to look away from what is broken. And what is broken is that one of the two parties does not respect the rule of law…. And that is a flashing red light for our country.”

CNN tried to get both sides, booking Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche for a sit-down with anchor Kaitlan Collins. But based on the network’s distant third place finish behind Fox News and MSNBC, the cable audience continues to gravitate to the opinion hosts who represent their own viewpoints.

Such stories can be tricky to navigate for Fox News anchors who don’t dabble in opinion. On Wednesday, Bream took fire from Trump in a post criticizing her for correcting a guest, Trump attorney Alina Habba, who said the Biden administration is behind the legal cases against his predecessor. (The hush money trial was prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office).

Unbridled, Bream succinctly described the verdict in a political context. “The Biden-Harris campaign is free now to call President Trump a convicted felon,” Bream said.

TV news organizations will now be faced with the challenge of how much of a platform to provide candidate Trump, as he moves out of the courtroom and onto the campaign trail.

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Trump announced Friday that he was holding a press conference in the atrium of Trump Tower in Manhattan. NBC was the only broadcast network to cut into regular programming to cover the event.

But Trump took no questions during the appearance, in which he aired a litany of grievances and attacks on President Biden, including an accusation that the Democratic administration “wants to take away your cars.”

NBC pulled away from the remarks, as did CNN and MSNBC, noting the falsehoods coming from Trump. Fox News ran the speech in full.

Trump is slated to give his first post-verdict interview to Fox News, airing on the Sunday edition of “Fox & Friends.”

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Trump turns conviction into cash, spotlights record fundraising in wake of guilty verdict

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Trump turns conviction into cash, spotlights record fundraising in wake of guilty verdict

Donald Trump is touting “record shattering” fundraising fueled by his convictions in the first trial of a former or current president in the nation’s history.

The former president’s campaign announced on Friday morning that it had hauled in $34.8 million in fundraising from 6 p.m. ET to midnight on Thursday, immediately after Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony counts in his criminal trial in New York City.

And on Friday evening, the Trump campaign announced an update — nearly $53 million raised in the 24 hours following the verdict through their online digital fundraising platform.

The campaign touted that the fundraising was “nearly double the biggest day ever recorded for the Trump campaign on the WinRed platform” and emphasized that the guilty verdicts “have awakened the MAGA movement like never before.”

HOW TRUMP GUILTY VERDICTS MAY IMPACT THE 2024 REMATCH WITH BIDEN

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Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower, Thursday, May 30, 2024, after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

The surge in contributions comes as Trump aims to close the fundraising gap with President Biden as they face off in a 2024 election rematch.

“From just minutes after the sham trial verdict was announced, our digital fundraising system was overwhelmed with support,” Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote in a statement on Friday morning.

WHAT TRUMP TOLD FOX NEWS DIGITAL FOLLOWING THE VERDICT

They spotlighted that “not only was the amount historic, but 29.7% of [Thursday’s] donors were brand-new donors to the WinRed platform.”

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And pointing to the autumn election, LaCivita and Wiles reiterated that “President Trump is fighting to save our nation and November 5th is the day Americans will deliver the real verdict.”

Trump speaks the day after he's convicted in his criminal trial

Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump Tower, Friday, May 31, 2024, in New York. A day after a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony charges, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee addressed the conviction and likely attempt to cast his campaign in a new light. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Minutes after the verdict was read in the first trial of a former or current president in the nation’s history, Trump’s team put out a fundraising appeal to supporters.

“Friend: Is this the end of America?,” Trump asked in the email. “I was just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial.

“My end-of-month fundraising deadline is just DAYS AWAY!” Trump emphasized in the email, which included a photo of the former president labeling him a “political prisoner.”

WinRed, the GOP online fundraising platform used by Trump’s campaign, among others, briefly shut down within an hour of the verdict.

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trump in court

Former President Trump appears in court for his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024, in New York City. (Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)

Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita advised donors encountering a WinRed error message to sign up for Trump’s text messaging list or log back onto the site and try again. 

“If you are one of the millions of American Patriots wanting to donate to Donald Trump’s campaign and you get an error message from @WINRED …don’t give up! Log back on and try again ! or Text TRUMP to 88022,” LaCivita wrote in a tweet.

BIDEN CAMPAIGN QUICKLY POUNCES ON TRUMP TRIAL GUILTY VERDICTS

Trump’s campaign website also directed donors to Anedot, another fundraising platform used by various GOP campaigns.

Trump’s team also fired off a warning shot to the campaigns of down-ballot Republicans not to try and raise money directly off of the former president’s conviction, to prevent the “siphoning” of donations headed to Trump’s coffers.

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Meanwhile, the former president’s top pollsters put out a memo on the eve of the verdict arguing that a conviction would not have any electoral consequences.

Trump holds a trio of top dollar fundraisers in California at the end of next week.

President Joe Biden speaks at podium in Philadelphia

President Biden speaks at a campaign rally at Girard College on May 29, 2024, in Philadelphia. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris used the rally to launch a nationwide campaign to court Black voters. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Biden’s re-election campaign also quickly sent out fundraising appeals following the verdict.

“Despite a jury finding Donald Trump guilty today, there is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box,” the Biden campaign wrote in a fundraising text to supporters Thursday evening. 

And it urged that “if you have been waiting for the perfect time to make your first donation to Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, we’re here to tell you today is the day.”

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Trump has been aiming to close his fundraising gap with Biden. In April, his campaign and the Republican National Committee for the first time out-raised the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

While Trump has stepped up his fundraising, the Biden campaign still enjoyed an $84 million to $49 million cash-on-hand advantage at the end of April.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

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