Yue Stella Yu, CalMatters

The outreach was particularly noteworthy because Google had not itself taken a public position on the bill. The tech giant was so quiet about its opposition that Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, the author of AB 566, did not know about Google’s email push until a CalMatters reporter asked.

The California Legislature slogged through a marathon final week this week, extending its session into Saturday to push through a major package of climate and energy policies.

“By disregarding basic journalistic ethics in favor of malicious propaganda, Fox continues to play a major role in the further erosion of the bedrock principles of informed representative government,” the lawsuit reads.