Jim Jordan: Democrat Bill Would Grant Media ‘Cartel Power’

House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH) said during a hearing Friday that a Democrat bill would give establishment media outlets “cartel power.”

Jordan delivered his opening statement during a House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing, in which he discussed the Journalist and Preservation Act, a bill sponsored by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI). The bill would give establishment media outlets an antitrust exemption to collectively bargain with big tech companies.

However, citing journalist Glenn Greenwald, Jordan said that the legislation could easily empower establishment outlets to the detriment of big media’s 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.

Jordan also said that America already witnessed big media and big tech colluded to ensure that the American people did not hear about a bombshell story about Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, right before the 2020 presidential election.

“Now we have legislation that’s going to give big media this consortium and cartel power,” Jordan said. His remarks echo comments by Breitbart News’ Allum Bokhari, who warned the night before the hearing that such cartel power could freeze out independent and conservative media voices.

“Maybe that’s the right course, but I really got real questions about that, whether we should move in that direction,” he added.