Josh Withrow, a fellow at the R Street Institute, claimed on Breitbart News on Saturday that the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), in contrast to how supporters of the legislation have portrayed it, would only benefit media conglomerates and not local, independent news organisations.
As establishment media corporations and their congressional friends worked to pass the JCPA, which conservatives and other critics have referred to as a media cartel measure, Withrow spoke to Breitbart News Saturday presenter Matthew Boyle.
The JCPA would grant the news media and television sectors an antitrust exemption, enabling them to organise a media cartel to bargain with big tech for internet advertising revenue. It would only strengthen established media conglomerates, not local ones, according to Withrow and many others.
According to Withrow, “Everyone likes their local paper, and nobody wants to go against their local TV network, especially if they’re a politician, right? That’s why this measure is being promoted in such a way that it appeals to so many politicians. However, this is being marketed as a solution for the local journalism business, which is currently having some difficulties. However, due to the way the measure is written, the major multinational corporations that have been acquiring news organisations over the past few decades will be present at the negotiating table.
“In particular, the proposed law in the Senate right now expressly permits news broadcasters and does not impose a size restriction on those broadcasters who would be permitted. Therefore, News Corp. and other large corporations will be represented at the table since the larger corporations are mostly responsible for driving traffic to these websites in the first place, and that is where the money will flow, he said.
Withrow continued, “This is not going to help independent journalists and local news organisations nearly as much as it’s going to increase the earnings of these struggling giant corporations.
The second-largest owner of news organisations in the nation, Alden Capital, is a hedge fund, according to the president of the Media Guild of the West, a union that represents journalists and media workers in Arizona, southern California, and Texas. He claimed that the bill would amount to a handout to Alden Capital.
Bloomberg News SiriusXM Patriot 125 broadcasts Saturday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm Eastern.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
