Media trade publication Radio & TV Business Report has conceded defeat on the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), meaning that the gravy train for the corporate establishment media will not be enacted in this session.
Without the JCPA provision in the omnibus measure, R&TVBR predicted, “legislation would likely not be taken during this Congressional session.”
A Washington source quoted the trade publication as saying that the JCPA’s chances of approval were “all but dead” unless it was attached to a larger package.
If the JCPA had been approved, the media business would have received corporate assistance. The plan would have formalized the cozy relationship between Big Tech and Big Media by establishing a government-approved gravy train of cash gifts and other favors flowing from Big Tech to Big Media.
The bill’s supporters in the media industry lobbied Congress for it vigorously. Conservative leaders in the House and Senate were strongly opposed to the JCPA, even though several Republicans worked with it.
Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Mike Lee (R-UT) were all early and vocal opponents of the plan (R-LA).
News from Breitbart:
There have been rumors that new House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) agrees with Rep. McCarthy that the JCPA should be excluded from any end-of-year omnibus.
Katie Britt, a Republican senator-elect from Alabama, has also lately spoken out against the idea, claiming it had “no place” in an omnibus package.
A Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Indiana Senator Mike Braun, called the bill a “barnacle” that had no place in an omnibus or other “must-pass” legislation.
Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, agreed that the JCPA should not be included in an omnibus. He also criticized the practice of having contentious legislation in must-pass packages like the omnibus.
But conservatives weren’t the only ones who thought the media bailout was terrible. Unions representing media employees and free market libertarians voiced concerns about the plan outside Congress.
News from Breitbart:
All political parties united in their opposition to the law. The bill’s conservative opponents said that it allowed too much censorship. The media unions and the progressive left were against the law because it would benefit the same hedge fund owners of media corporations responsible for widespread layoffs and reduced wages. The law was opposed by libertarians who argued that it violated market freedom by requiring one group of businesses to subsidize a different group. Experts from all political parties voiced opposition to the law because it threatened one of the Internet’s fundamental tenets—the ability to share links freely.
After the media industry’s congressional backers were unsuccessful in getting their different measures to the floor, they tried to sneak them into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Despite threats from Republicans like Sen. Tom Cotton to filibuster the measure if it included unnecessary non-defense issues, such as the JCPA wording, these attempts ultimately failed.
The only plausible path forward for the JCPA to become law during this Congress is on the omnibus measure, which has already cleared the Senate and is expected to pass the House.