Efforts to pass the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), a bill that exempts media companies from antitrust law — enabling them to join together in a cartel to collude with Big Tech — will die in the House of Representatives, Speaker Kevin McCarthy told Breitbart News today.
The Speaker has been a staunch opponent of the media bailout bill. While in the minority, he led efforts in the House to foil last-minute efforts by Democrats and their establishment Republican allies to attach it to the annual defense spending bill.
Rep. McCarthy made the comments on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM Patriot, hosted by Breitbart Washington Political Editor Matt Boyle.
“They say it would rein in Big Tech, but what would happen in reality is, it would empower the establishment media outlets that got us into this entire mess in the first place,” said Boyle, explaining the bill.
“With the Hunter Biden laptop story that they covered up, with the Russia collusion narrative that they jammed down America’s throats. They would all be able to form cartels.”
Rep. McCarthy repeated that the JCPA is “dead in the house.”
“This is why elections are very important,” said the Speaker. “The Democrats will never give up. But it is dead in the House. You’ve got a new majority in the House.”
“I will never give up. It doesn’t mean we get a victory every day. But it means I come back every single day focused on a victory for the American public. I will not give up for them, and [the Democrats] will not get this through.”
The JCPA has become one of the most-revived bills of the past decade. After failing on numerous occasions to secure the bipartisan majority needed to pass it, Democrats attempted a last-ditch effort last year to attach it to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense spending bill.
That effort also failed, but Senate Democrats are now seeking to resurrect the legislation yet again.
The bill aims to transfer wealth from Silicon Valley to the discredited and distrusted corporate legacy media. Beyond the financial payouts, the bill allows media companies to form a “joint negotiating entity”—a cartel, immune from antitrust law—to negotiate with Big Tech companies on the “terms and conditions” for carrying their content.
Legacy media companies already receive billions of dollars in voluntary payments from the tech companies, while their competitors in the independent media are frequently demonetized and suppressed by those same companies simply for discussing controversial topics.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.