Democrats are trying to silence conservative voices and independent journalists

BASEDPolitics' Hannah Cox writes, “In a 2021 Gallup poll, only 9% of Americans said they trust the mass media. That distrust has been more than earned, from covering up stories like Hunter Biden’s laptop, to running water for the intelligence community, to an egregious bias on the coronavirus response—the mainstream media has proven itself to be prejudiced, slanted, and less than ethical in its reporting. Due to that, an increasing number of Americans are turning to non-traditional media outlets to get their information.

And that has the mainstream media shooketh.

Has that made them want to change? Do better work? Examine themselves? No.

Don't let desperate Democrats sneak the JCPA into the NDAA. It has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with silencing conservative voices and independent journalism.

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) December 6, 2022

Instead, they’re using the oldest trick in the book and looking to Congress to crush their competitors via the Journalism Competition and Protection Act of 2022 (JCPA).

Per usual, the bill’s name is an indication that its contents do the direct opposite of what it promises. As we detailed here a few months ago, JCPA is just another flavor in Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s box of poison antitrust chocolates. It purports to be concerned with ‘fixing’ competition, when in reality it is meant to crush the plucky independent rivals of the mainstream media.

Including JCPA in the NDAA is a desperate attempt for Democrats to pass the legislation during the lame-duck session of Congress.

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) December 6, 2022

It does this by allowing companies like the New York Times to join with other media companies and form collective bargaining agreements that will force social media platforms to pay them for clicks. You know who that works really well for? Large old dinosaurs in the media with plenty of money and power to negotiate, and without a pressing need for organic social media traffic. You know who that doesn’t work for? Independent journalists, start-ups, nonprofits, and podcasters who will be left out of these negotiations, and who cannot command a pay-per-click entry fee to garner new views on their content.

This is intentional. Government actors liked it when there were just a few media outlets Americans could go to for information. Those companies and their employees were pretty easy to control, mislead, or garner favor with. Not so as we merge into the democratization of information free flow where anyone with a Twitter account can be a news source.”

Read the entire column.