Nation

Journalism Competition and Preservation Act could be a massive blow to small media companies

Published

4 years ago

March 12, 2021

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2019 is currently making its way through Congress and if passed, would be a massive blow to small media companies.

According to govtrack.us, the bill creates a four-year safe harbor from antitrust laws for print or digital news companies to collectively negotiate with online social media companies regarding the terms on which the news companies’ content may be distributed by online content distributors.

A report published by Breitbart this week criticizes the bill, saying it would give Big Media companies a special exemption from antitrust law, allowing them to form a cartel, meaning big companies would maintain prices at a high level while restricting the competition.

“Why should these establishment news companies be given a special exemption from antitrust law to negotiate on their own behalf something that applies only to their select few and not to all news companies and journalists? Of course, they should not,” Brietbart wrote.

In addition, the bill would allow for bigger media companies to exclude smaller companies from the cartel.

According to Breitbart, if the bill is passed, there would be nothing to stop the formation of an cartel that includes CNN, NBC, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post and other big media companies, while excluding smaller competitors in the independent media, such as local newspapers.

This bill would leave journalism in the hands of Big Tech by allowing the government to give them special exemption from antitrust laws.

The corporate media, which leans left, is pushing for this bill.

Breitbart is calling for this bill to be opposed at all costs.

“Conservatives who want to empower the establishment media which has too often made clear their intention to destroy conservatives are just sowing the seeds of their own destruction.”

Follow Annaliese Levy on Twitter @AnnalieseLevy

Nation

Elon Musk Fact Checks Biden’s Old Tweet ‘No one is above the law’

Published

18 hours ago

December 2, 2024

Staff Writer

In a clever reaction to President Joe Biden pardoning his son, Hunter, fact-checkers on Elon Musk’s X are flagging Biden’s old post stating “no one is above the law.” Biden’s old post, shared in May, was written as an attack on now-President-elect Donald Trump, but the tables have turned on Biden as he is being heavily criticized for his hypocrisy in placing his son “above the law.”

The New York Post reports:

“It now has a community warning readers: ‘President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, for crimes covering nearly 11 years of ‘offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”

After that, Musk added his own proposed note calling out the president, writing: “By pardoning his son Hunter, not merely for a single crime, but for actual or potential crimes he may or may not have created over an eleven-year period, Joe Biden has made clear that some people are, in fact, above the law.”

According to the New York Post, “Hunter Biden, 54, pleaded guilty in September to nine counts tied to bilking Americans of $.1.4 million in taxes and was found guilty of three federal gun charges in June after he was charged with possession of a firearm while addicted to illegal drugs.”

Biden is not only being criticized for pardoning his Hunter, but for going back on his vow that he would not pardon his son. Biden argued in his defense that Hunter was “singled out only because he is my son,” The Post reports. Biden is hitting back saying that critics are only trying to break Hunter’s sobriety.

Musk shared a screenshot on X of his own fact-check with a statement saying “Community Notes slays.” Community Notes is a feature on X that allows users to flag false or misleading content, according to The Post, leaving the fact-checking up to its users rather than staffers.