WASHINGTON – The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday kicked off its antitrust probe into Big Tech with a look at how companies like Facebook and Google have hurt news organizations while simultaneously allowing for the spread of misinformation.

Rep. David Cicilline, who led the hearing, described it as “the first significant antitrust investigation undertaken by Congress in decades.”

And if Tuesday’s hearing was any indication, it will operate in a bipartisan fashion. Over the course of the three hours, both Republicans and Democrats seemed to relish taking Big Tech (Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon, more) to task.

“If online news publishers can’t survive, then who can?”

Cicilline, a Democrat, made an important point at the hearing, noting that “massive cuts” have taken place in recent years not only at “traditional news companies” but also at “online news sources.” Cicilline then said, “This raises a critical question: if online news publishers can’t survive, then who can?”

That point was echoed by News Corp’s David Pitofsky, who said, “Many in Silicon Valley dismiss the press as old media, failing to evolve in the face of online competition.” Explaining that “this is wrong,” Pitofsky said “online platforms are placing news organizations under siege through massive free-riding.”

Atlanta Journal and Constitution editor Kevin Riley summed up the problem in a way that makes the tension between the tech platforms and local journalism palpable. “We have more people reading the Atlanta Journal-Constitution than at any other point in our history,” Riley said. “The challenge here is simple, which is, in what kind of world do you grow your audience, reach a bigger market and somehow face even greater financial challenges than you did before?”

Can antitrust exemption save newspapers, online publishers from Big Tech?

As a partial solution, Cicilline proposed legislation to establish an antitrust exemption that would allow news companies to band together to negotiate revenue rates with big tech platforms. He called it “a life support measure, not the remedy for long-term health” of the news business.

The senior Republican on the full committee, Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, said he backs Cicilline’s proposal. Addressing the broader question of antitrust, however, he said, “Big is not necessarily bad,” adding that lawmakers need to proceed cautiously.

The head of an association that represents technology and telecom companies said the government scrutiny of successful companies is appropriate. However, an antitrust exemption for the news industry wouldn’t solve the problem, said Matt Schruer, vice president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association.

Before the internet, “news publishers received an exemption to deal with previous competitors like radio and TV news (and they) have not worked,” Schruer said. “The results were fewer choices for readers and less competition among news outlets.”

But David Chavern, president of the News Media Alliance representing some 2,000 news organizations of all sizes and types, called an antitrust exemption “the lightest-touch option on the table.”

Congress, fed agencies gearing up for antitrust probes of ‘Big Tech’

“There’s a real urgency in the industry. We’re at crisis point now,” Chavern said.

Missing: Tech execs!

Unfortunately, no one from Big Tech was present to answer any Q’s. The omission was glaring. Riley along with others made their case in front of a panel of sympathetic lawmakers who appeared as if they have already made up their mind about Silicon Valley…

Google’s Richard Gringas did release a statement, however: “We’ve worked for many years to be a collaborative and supportive technology and advertising partner to the news industry, as it’s worked to adapt to the new economics of the internet. Every month Google News and Google Search drive over 10 billion clicks to publishers’ websites…”

“Who will pay for the news?”

This is the focus of a brand new report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. The researchers found that “most people would not pay for online news and that there had been only a small increase in the proportion of people willing to do so in the last six years. Even among those who do pay, there is ‘subscription fatigue’ — many are tired of being asked to pay for so many different subscriptions.”

Here’s Laura Hazard Owen’s takeaway for NiemanLab: “Even people who LIKE paying for news usually only pay for one subscription…”