Wild the FTC isn't suing the NYTimes, WSJ, or every other paid news outlet for far more egregious cancellation process practices. Almost as if the FTC is a political weapon.
I'd posit that suing news organizations would be perceived as more political than a retailer.
Or am I missing something important here?
Probably because newspapers are notorious to be the worst of the worst when trying to cancel free deals that automatically turn into expensive memberships.
Common methods are to only allow cancellation through telephone and only have open during work hours when most people can't call. If you manage to get hold of a human being, then you'll have to spend an hour arguing before they accept your cancellation. Then, even if you manage to get through it, you're missing the paper trail so the newspaper can just claim you changed your mind.
As late as yesterday, the Swedish Consumer Agency published a report on the issue.
You won't get any argument about that from me. To butcher Mel Brooks: "...they stink on ice!"[0]
However, that's orthogonal to my point -- that going after a newspaper would likely be perceived as more political than going after a retailer, especially in the highly charged US political environment.
Modulo that underlying dynamic, do you have a specific argument about how the status quo governmental power structure performing the tiniest bit of regulation on the status quo corporate power structure is "political" ? Or are we just supposed to not think too hard and jump to some kayfabe partisan narrative?