Leftist groups call out Nancy Pelosi for pushing 'media cartel' bill through lame duck session

December 6, 2022

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is getting backlash from the left for supporting a controversial bill that critics say will hurt independent journalism and benefit large "media cartels."

Far-left organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), called Pelosi out for supporting the so-called Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, Breitbart reported.

Lefties call out Pelosi

The left-wing group Fight for the Future blasted Pelosi on Twitter, calling the bill "a handout to hedge funds that will harm local news and force social media to carry + PAY FOR hateful content."

"Speaker Pelosi needs to put her foot down!" the group tweeted.

The controversial legislation would provide an anti-trust exemption allowing news publishers to collectively bargain with Big Tech.

The bill's backers say it will give smaller outlets leverage, but an unlikely coalition of left- and right-wing critics have rallied against the bill, saying it's a handout to big corporate media that would hurt competition.

An unlikely coalition

With the exception of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.), congressional leaders are preparing to pass the JCPA through a lame duck Congress by attaching it to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

More than two dozen mostly left-leaning groups blasted the push in a letter to Pelosi, McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-Ny.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), saying the bill benefits big newspapers and broadcasters the most.

The letter says that a much-vaunted cap excluding publishers with over 1,500 workers "would exclude only the nation’s three largest newspapers from participating in negotiations" and that the bill forces Big Tech companies to carry "extreme" content, "disinformation," and "hate speech."

The bill's right-leaning opponents contend the bill would do the opposite, by empowering legacy media to pressure Big Tech to censor conservatives.

Facebook pushes back

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has threatened to stop sharing news on its platform if the "ill-considered" bill becomes law.

"We will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions," the company's spokesman said.

The JCPA cleared a Senate Judiciary Committee vote after Republican Senator Ted Cruz (Tx.), a backer of the bill, passed an amendment he says would stop the JCPA from being used to promote censorship.

The legislation is being backed by a bi-partisan group of senators including McConnell, Cruz, Amy Klobuchar (D-Mn.), and John Kennedy (La.).

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