Journalism Competition and Preservation Act

[GURPS]

McConnell Caves to Pelosi, Schumer, Allows JCPA Media Cartel Bailout Bill to Be Included in Defense Package​

The JCPA, essentially a transfer of wealth from Silicon Valley to the discredited and distrusted corporate legacy media, is highly controversial. Beyond the financial payouts to media companies, they will be able to form a “joint negotiating entity”—a cartel, immune from antitrust law—to negotiate with Big Tech companies on the “terms and conditions” for carrying their content.

Censorship is sure to be a frequent demand of media companies. Despite provisions in the bill that purportedly stop media companies from negotiating the suppression of any one competitor, there is nothing to stop them asking their content to be prioritized over broadly-drawn categories that are used as pretexts for censorship, like “disinformation.”

Breitbart News has closely covered how the bill continues to enable the censorship and sidelining of conservative media.

Via Breitbart News:

Even with the hastily-added Senate amendment aimed at addressing conservative concerns regarding collusion between the media industry and Big Tech on the censorship of competitors, the bill still contains plenty of ways for the cartel to sideline conservative media.
Provisions to ensure the cartel cannot discriminate on the basis of “viewpoint” are particularly unconvincing. The pretexts used by social media companies, “fact checkers,” and other arms of the corporate censorship apparatus are almost always viewpoint-neutral. No one is censored for being a conservative, say the censors: they are censored for “misinformation,” “hate speech,” “conspiracy theories,” and other purportedly viewpoint-neutral reasons.

 

[GURPS]

The JCPA Contains a Massive Loophole for China​

The JCPA creates a “must carry and must pay” scheme, forcing U.S. tech companies both to carry and pay for the content of news organizations through mandatory arbitration agreements.

The news organizations are not limited to U.S. ones, meaning the JCPA would require U.S. companies to carry and subsidize a range of publications that spread propaganda from foreign sources. This would open up the U.S. to increased foreign influence over American political and social movements, and increased exposure to CCP-supported narratives.

The potential to empower foreign adversaries is particularly extraordinary given that lawmakers are planning to attach it to the NDAA, a “must pass” bill that is meant to fund U.S. national defense.

There is a narrow exception in the JCPA carving out publications that are clearly “owned or controlled” by foreign powers. This very weak exception has not been revised since the JCPA was introduced and would instantly be abused by Russian, Chinese, and other foreign interests. “Owned or controlled” does not mean Chinese or Russian entities cannot partner or pay publications in other countries to carry their propaganda.

This is increasingly happening with entities like China Daily that ‘partner’ with U.S. publications to “insert articles that portray the Chinese government and life in China in a positive light,” including mainstream publications like Time and the L.A. Times. Freedom House recently highlighted Beijing’s increasing global media influence, which would be strengthened by a bill like JCPA.

Adverse foreign interests will be able to leverage JCPA to convey propaganda to U.S. audiences, including by disguising their ownership of U.S.-facing publications, partnering with U.S. publications, and broadcasting foreign content on U.S. platforms.

 

[GURPS]

Facebook Owner Meta Could Remove News From The Platform If Congress Passes Controversial Bill​

“If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions,” Meta said in a statement. “The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act fails to recognize the key fact: publishers and broadcasters put their content on our platform themselves because it benefits their bottom line – not the other way around.”

“No company should be forced to pay for content users don’t want to see and that’s not a meaningful source of revenue,” the statement continued. “Put simply: the government creating a cartel-like entity which requires one private company to subsidize other private entities is a terrible precedent for all American businesses.”

 

[GURPS]

Democrats looked like they were going to succeed, yet again, and it looked like Republicans would again deflate and disappoint their base. As Breitbart News reported on Monday morning, after the weekend of negotiations, despite McCarthy arguing against it, McConnell had agreed to the JCPA going into the NDAA—and Pelosi and Schumer looked like they were on a glide path to another victory.

That’s when something really interesting happened. The right sprung into high gear, and began fighting back—and hard—particularly against the JCPA’s inclusion but also against the inclusion of other unrelated leftist provisions and for the inclusion of the repeal of the military vaccine mandate. As Breitbart News reported on Tuesday night, the blowback was severe—and it forced the GOP, particularly McConnell, into action back the other way.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” one longtime GOP leadership aide told Breitbart News during the process.

“It’s almost too good to be true, so I wanted to wait until we saw the text before confirming that JCPA and the rest of their nonsense was stripped out and the vax mandate repeal was in,” another said on Tuesday night.

One of the key details several sources with knowledge of the matter told Breitbart News happened was at a policy lunch for Senate Republicans on Tuesday several GOP Senators got up and raised concerns with what was going on. This came more than a full day into the barrage of backlash Republicans were getting for caving to the Democrats on this, and it became clear to GOP Senate leaders–especially McConnell–that the threat Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) made on Fox News earlier that morning that Republicans would filibuster the NDAA if the JCPA and the other unrelated leftist measures were in it was real.

How the Republicans Actually Fought Against the Dems on NDAA--and Won

A coalition of Republicans forced the hand of their leaders, made them fight, and Republicans actually won almost everything in the NDAA fight.

www.breitbart.com

 

[Hijinx]

Republicans forced the hand of their leaders. Don't make me laugh.

These same republicans ELECTED these leaders.

What were they thinking then?