Regulatory Washington has an appetite for irony, contradiction, and paradox. This is on full display as the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeks to grow online advertising while Congress takes up laws to counteract those efforts.

The DOJ has joined several states in filing yet another antitrust case against Google. The new one is about online advertising, in which the DOJ holds that the company excludes rivals, “extracts inflated fees,” and has “taken supra-competitive profits.” As a result, “Website creators earn less, and advertisers pay more.” If the DOJ is right and wins the case, you’ll be the happy recipient of more online advertising, fewer newspapers, and less traditional media.

Read Dr. Jamison’s complete blog post at AEI.