you are. John Thune (R-SD), the Republican Party’s Senate whip and a likely contender in any future war to replace Mitch McConnell as Republican Party leader, supports a bill that would effectively be a bailout for disreputable corporate media.
The bill is called the Journalistic Competition and Protection Act (JCPA) and has been covered extensively by Breitbart News in the past.
It’s unclear whether Thune briefed her GOP colleagues before deciding to sponsor the controversial Democrat-led bill. His office did not respond to this question.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Kentucky Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul (Photo by SHAWN THEW/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s common knowledge in DC that Senator Thune wants to be the next leader of the Republican Party in the Senate. So have Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and John Barrasso (R-WY), neither of whom have formally held a position in the JCPA. takes place at the end of the struggle for leadership. Whatever Tine’s ambitions, he seems happy to risk alienating the grassroots by supporting the rescue of one of Republicans’ most hated institutions: the mainstream corporate media.
The JCPA will create a U.S. media cartel with the power to subdue competitors, artificially boost algorithms and search results, and bargain collectively with big tech companies for specialized services, including billions of dollars, beyond what is voluntarily provided by big tech companies to corporate media. in copyright.
Award-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, former local journalist Dan Gaynor, and former federal antitrust investigator Dr. Daniel Francis.
All explained how the bill would benefit the biggest, richest and most corrupt media companies in America.
The GOP leadership in the House of Representatives condemned the bill with the GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the “antithesis of conservatism.”
In comments to Breitbart News, a spokesperson for Senator Thune defended the senator’s position.
“Based on my experience in South Dakota, local newspapers and reporters have always adhered to honesty, transparency and fairness in their reporting,” the spokesperson said. “Ask any newspaper or visit any newsroom and you will see for yourself the struggles these media are facing. Senator Thune has heard many times from leaders in South Dakota’s journalism industry who believe this bill will improve their position as they try to keep their operations afloat. While this bill is unlikely to be a silver bullet, Senator Toon joins Senators Paul, Graham, Kennedy and others in supporting efforts that give local journalism a chance to win.”
Thune’s office statement was notable, conceding that the bill was “probably not the silver bullet” against Big Tech.
It’s also worth noting that Thune relied heavily on the cover of other Republicans who co-sponsored the bill, notably GOP Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and John Kennedy, notably name checking. (R-LA).
Kennedy is the top GOP contributor in the Senate and has worked with Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on this for over a year.
It is also interesting when Thune decided to support the JCPA with her personal mandate. Specifically, this was when the Senate Judiciary Committee finally officially recognized the flagging bill, but just after the Senate Democrats defeated the Senate Republicans.
After Republicans negotiated the Chip Act in good faith with Democrats to encourage semiconductor financing, the Democrats reconciled party lines to pass a giant package, reviving a key element of President Joe Biden’s agenda. This benign legislative stance that has led to the adoption of the CHIPS plan and many other bilateral agreements over the past year and a half appears to have been severely damaged by the Democrats’ move.
Thune doesn’t seem to care as she has decided to push bipartisan agreements despite her negative impact on Senate Republicans and especially McConnell.
Thune’s office did not respond to a specific question on this matter.
Dan Gaynor, technical director of the Center for Media Research and a former local news reporter for 15 years, told a Senate committee earlier this year that the JCPA would do more harm than good to this local news.
“We all need credible local journalism that helps inform the public while also holding powerful people accountable,” Gaynor said. Said. Local outlets are treated like cash cows. Large corporations milked them and chopped up their remains. This law will only serve to support existing large corporate media, not independent media.”
“Corporate media already benefits from being treated better in social media algorithms than smaller independent media,” Gaynor continued. “The combination of their enormous advantages makes them even more powerful.”
A spokesperson for Senator Tune defended the senator’s track record in big tech.
“First, Senator Thune will break the record for bringing Big Tech to justice against someone else. From hearings forcing big tech leaders to publicly defend their practices, to passing several laws that will provide greater transparency to consumers and hold tech giants accountable, Senator has always been the priority of the American people. Recently, in June, Thune led more than two dozen Republican colleagues in the Senate to pass legislation to combat Google’s unfair censorship of emails sent by Republican candidates and officials. Again, their references speak for themselves.”
A Thune spokesperson said the senator is on big tech, one for platform transparency and the other for 230.
Desperate to avoid the impression that the JCPA is merely a savior for companies like News Corp, its advocates The newspaper “The New York Times, and Washington Post, He pointed to proposed changes that would limit the benefits of the bill for companies with fewer than 1,500 employers.
However, the proposed changes were not included in the version of the bill co-sponsored by Senator Thune; This means that the country’s biggest media companies – the same ones that have fooled the American public for years with narratives like Russiagate – will reap the rewards.
As Breitbart News previously pointed out, even changing employee restrictions won’t prevent corporate media from benefiting.
Via Breitbart News:
It would also be worthless for companies with more than 1500 employees. wall street diary, used corporate restructuring to split divisions into separate companies, allowing them to enjoy the protections of the bill.
Restructuring to avoid antitrust laws is common in the corporate world. For example, Google, which owns YouTube, has been reorganized into Alphabet, whose technical subsidiaries are now Google and YouTube.
no symptoms Wall Street Magazine He said the 1,500 employee limit would fix the problem. Many major media conglomerates, including News Corp, Disney, Hearst, and others, own several news companies with 1,500 employees or less.
No school Wall Street Magazine The report states that these giant parent companies (some worth billions of dollars) or their subsidiaries will not be included in the cap.
In other words, the bill appears to be the company’s fortune in some of its less trusted brands.
It also comes at a time when big tech companies are voluntarily donating large sums of money to outdated media companies.
Last year, Facebook reportedly paid news publishers massive “licensing fees” totaling $1.6 billion. Google News Corp. It has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in news companies over the years, including a recent agreement of tens of millions of dollars to access its content.
As the GOP leadership in the House of Representatives opposes the bill, time is running out for DC’s well-funded corporate media lobbyists to become prominent proponents of the law. If the Republicans take back the House in November, media support will die for the foreseeable future.
Source: Breitbart
