The House Judiciary GOP asked rhetorically Tuesday if America can trust “big media” if Congress gives them immunity, citing a significant retraction from the Washington Post.
The House Judiciary Republicans, led by ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH), wrote its statement after the Post released a significant retraction after the establishment media outlet fabricated a quote alleging then-President Donald Trump pressured Georgia state officials to “find the [election] fraud.”
The House Judiciary GOP’s statement follows as Jordan questioned the need for passing legislation that would grant establishment media outlets an antitrust exemption to bargain with big tech companies collectively.
The legislation, otherwise known as the Journalist and Preservation Act, sponsored by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), engendered swift concern from Jordan.
Jordan, citing journalist Glenn Greenwald, said during a hearing last week the Democrat bill could easily empower establishment media outlets to the detriment of their smaller competitors.
Greenwald said in his opening statement:
Further empowering this already-powerful media industry — which has demonstrated it will use its force to silence competitors under the guise of “quality control” — runs the real risk of transferring the abusive monopoly power from Silicon Valley to corporate media companies or, even worse, encouraging some sort of de facto merger in which these two industries pool their power to the mutual benefit of each.
President and CEO of the News Media Alliance David Chavern said giving establishment outlets an antitrust exemption would help stop “misinformation.”
“Now we have legislation that’s going to give big media this consortium and cartel power,” Jordan said.
“Maybe that’s the right course, but I really got real questions about that, whether we should move in that direction,” he added.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.