Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) torched the news media for being a “source of misinformation” as senators discussed a proposal to allow news outlets to coordinate ad negotiations with Big Tech. MRC Vice President of Free Speech America and Business Dan Gainor also slammed the proposed law during the congressional hearing on the future of journalism.
Lee blasted the leftist media for failing to properly inform Americans: “Today’s news media is, often, a source of misinformation. And it’s one of the leading causes, when it does this, of social discord and political upheaval.” He quipped that “the self-proclaimed Fourth Estate loves to preach to the masses about ‘democracy dying in darkness’ while they themselves turn out the lights.” He listed several examples of times when the media reported stories that were completely inaccurate and caused chaos for the nation.
Gainor testified to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2021 (JCPA) just might undermine journalism itself. “The JCPA allows big media companies to ignore antitrust laws and work together,” Gainor warned in his opening statement. “That isn’t fixing the problem of having a Big Tech advertising cabal. It is simply adding another cabal to negotiate with it. Allowing a few of the largest and most powerful media companies to act as proxies for others only ensures that big firms will secure deals that benefit them.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) praised the Media Research Center for exposing “bias in the mainstream media” and asked Gainor to discuss how “Big News and Big Tech team up and filter the news and really take control of what you hear and what you see.”
Gainor explained that Big Tech and "Big Journalism” have caused a great deal of recent high-profile scandals by “not covering major issues.” He commented on “the scary idea here of creating a cartel” to protect certain media outlets, questioning whether “the major players in journalism” who "didn't stand up during the Hunter Biden story and cover that story while the New York Post was being censored [are] going to stand up and represent the little guy.”
Gainor also warned that the JCPA would make it even more difficult for smaller outlets to compete. “This JCPA also treads dangerously into areas best left alone like defining a ‘news content creator’ as one that has ‘a dedicated professional editorial staff,’” he noted. “Independent journalists still make news but they would be squeezed out by corporate media.”
The JCPA isn't the only bill Gainor suggested was worth tracking, but part of a larger wave of regulations that could harm the already tainted field of journalism: “There are a few journalism bills floating around in this Congress,” he said. “There is a concerted effort to get government involved in the practice and funding of journalists and journalism.” He added that a government-funded media would, by its very nature, be less likely to do its civic duty of holding power accountable:
“It is unrealistic to expect journalists funded or supported by politicians to turn around and report aggressively on those same politicians. We can’t expect journalists to hold powerful people accountable when they are accountable to those powerful people for their paychecks. And all this happens at a time when American trust in media is near an epic low.”
For those unconvinced, Gainor outlined some harrowing statistics: According to Gallup, “Americans’ trust in the media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly” has fallen to 36 percent. For Republicans, that number stands at 11 percent. "Why then are we bailing out corporate media when ordinary Americans would rather find new sources of information?”
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