If they simply acknowledged that and said "we are making a tax on tech social/search companies" and then that they were distributing the proceeds of that to news/media? I'd be fine with it. It's the theatrics that are the problem - pretending the underlying issue is social/search "stealing" content from news media.

This isn't benign - setting precedents that linking to something is stealing it is toxic to the whole concept of the internet itself. It may take a while to seep through but that precedent is going to get built on by every other aggrieved party who sees an opportunity there eventually.