Senator Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana, is fighting to stop the Democrats from passing the contentious Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) without a vote.
The JCPA is the primary funding source for the country’s largest media corporations. To get Big Tech to make financial and other concessions to the media business, the bill would permit the formation of a cartel to bargain on the industry’s behalf and use arbitration agreements to their advantage.
Large media conglomerates and the hedge funds that control a majority stake in them would benefit greatly from legal loopholes that make it easier for them to sign up all their newspapers as members of any new cartel.
To ensure that conservative and alternative media outlets remain on the periphery, the measure gives the cartel the power to develop its rules for rejecting possible new members. Because exclusion and censorship of conservatives have always been justified under viewpoint-neutral pretexts like “disinformation” and “extremism” in recent years, the bill’s provisions against “viewpoint” discrimination are meaningless.
Many conservatives don’t like it and are worried about security because China is utilizing media corporations that will profit from the JCPA to spread their propaganda. The Democratic Party’s plan to tack the JCPA onto the National Defense Authorization Act, a “must-pass” defense budget issue, is completely absurd (NDAA).
According to sources on Capitol Hill, Rep. Steve Daines expressed reservations about the plan. He is one of many Republican senators who have put a “hold” on the legislation, preventing it from moving forward in the usual fashion and making things difficult for the Democrats.
Sen. Daines is, therefore, acting following the will of Montanans. Gallup’s annual polling reveals that in 2021, only 11% of the public trusts the media, with Republicans having the lowest level of trust at 8%.
Interestingly, in 2021, 15% of Republicans, compared to just 9% in 2020, said abortion should be permitted under all conditions.
Media credibility has been seriously harmed. Thus healthy competition is essential for the sector to recover and prosper. Some lawmakers would artificially prop up the industry by giving Silicon Valley’s most wealthy and influential members access to back-channel communications.
A handful of courageous Senators, like Daines, are all it takes to disrupt the Democrats’ plans to get a corporate welfare package for their radical media allies.