With 51 attorneys general now participating in the anti-trust investigation of Google, there is a lot of misinformation out there.

You can read more in my op-ed in The Washington Times.

It’s time to set the record straight.

Just imagine that 90% of the most widely-read newspapers, the paper and the ink, were all owned by the same person…

And 90% of the newsstands where you could buy those papers were also owned by the same person…

One person who holds an almost unchecked ability to tell the entire country anything…

That would be disturbing, to say the least.

But, it gets worse.

If you wanted to advertise your business or service, you had to also go to the same person.

And this person would also tell you not only if you could advertise but determine where and to which people.

This is what our country now faces with Google’s dominance over so many aspects of our lives.

This country was built upon an ethic of fair play and equal opportunity for businesses to compete on a level playing field.

But right now Google holds all of the cards online.

Sure, they tell you their services are completely free. But if we’ve learned anything from Milton Friedman, it’s that there is no such thing as a free lunch!

Google is a huge business that has been built by trading information about you and your family. Information they have gleaned by tracking every keystroke and website you’ve visited. It’s an unprecedented amount of control over our lives.

We need to know if Google’s dominance has led to price increases, harmed publishers and content creators, or prevented competitors from participating in the free market.

And, we need to know if their stranglehold on information has also left consumers without a choice – give up your information or get no access to information, goods, and services on the internet.

We don’t need one person – or one company – deciding what news we can hear or what businesses to support.