{"id":1272150,"date":"2022-02-04T19:24:04","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T00:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1272150"},"modified":"2022-02-04T19:24:16","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T00:24:16","slug":"media-research-centers-dan-gainor-jcpa-benefits-same-media-giants-destroying-local-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/media-research-centers-dan-gainor-jcpa-benefits-same-media-giants-destroying-local-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Research Center&#039;s Dan Gainor: JCPA Benefits Same Media Giants Destroying Local News"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmedia-research-centers-dan-gainor-jcpa-benefits-same-media-giants-destroying-local-news%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1272150&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/newspapers-new-york-times-getty-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Dan Gainor, who leads Big Tech and free speech watchdog operations at the Media Research Center, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/02\/02\/watch-live-senate-lawmakers-debate-controversial-media-cartel-bill\/\">testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee<\/a> on the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) last week, warning lawmakers that far from benefiting the local news industry, the bill rewards the same national media outlets that are destroying it.<\/p>\n<p>The JCPA, which Breitbart News has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/tech\/2021\/03\/15\/bokhari-hearing-on-establishment-media-cartel-act-only-deepens-concerns\/\">covered extensively<\/a>, would create an antitrust exemption for media companies, protecting&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/355526\/americans-trust-media-dips-second-lowest-record.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">widely distrusted<\/a>&nbsp;media companies from competition by allowing them to form a legal cartel to collectively bargain with Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>If the JCPA passes, big corporate media companies would be able to form a legal cartel that could strike deals with Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other tech giants that would prioritize their content to the detriment of podcasters, YouTubers, Substack authors, and other forms of independent media.<\/p>\n<p>A line in&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.govtrack.us\/congress\/bills\/117\/s673\/text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">the bill<\/a>&nbsp;allows members of the state-sanctioned cartel to exclude any company that is not \u201csimilarly situated\u201d to them from the benefits of their negotiations with the tech giants, giving the cartel wide leeway to exclude any news organization of their choice.<\/p>\n<p>It also leaves out any journalist who does not have \u201ca dedicated professional editorial staff\u201d that publishes news content on \u201cat least a weekly basis,\u201d excluding independent journalists who run small or one-man operations.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Supporters of the bill, such as lead sponsor Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), claim it will help rescue the struggling local news industry, a point challenged by Gainor.<\/p>\n<p>In his testimony, Gainor, who worked in local news for over a decade, pointed out that the organizations that stood to benefit the most are the same large national media companies that have contributed to the decline of local news.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe JCPA allows big media companies to ignore antitrust laws and work together,\u201d said Gainor. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t fix the problem of having&nbsp;a big tech advertising cabal. It\u2019s simply adding another cabal to negotiate with it. Allowing a few of the largest and most&nbsp;powerful media companies to act as proxies for others only ensures that big firms secure deals that benefit them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all&nbsp;want trustworthy, local journalism that helps inform the public as well as hold powerful people accountable,\u201d continued Gainor \u201cExcept that\u2019s&nbsp;not how corporate media have handled local journalism in the past. Local outlets were treated as cash cows. Big corporations&nbsp;milked them and slaughtered the remains. This law would only serve to support huge existing corporate media instead of independent media.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCorporate media already benefits from better treatment by social media algorithms, than smaller independent outlets.&nbsp;Consolidating their already enormous advantages only makes them even more powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Gainor also pointed out that the big national media companies that would benefit from the JCPA are wealthy enough to not need the help, and also have a habit of acquiring and then destroying the local newspapers that JCPA defenders claim the bill will protect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCorporate news organizations don\u2019t need our help,\u201d said Gainor. \u201cThe <em>New York Times<\/em> just spent $550 million in cash&nbsp;purchasing The <em>Athletic<\/em>, which according to journalist Aron Pilhofer, covers 270 plus sports teams in more than 47 local&nbsp;markets. The <em>Times<\/em> has placed itself in direct competition with every local news site for the same pool of subscribers.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Times already has more than 8 million paid subscribers. The <em>Times<\/em> even just bought the popular game Wordle for a price&nbsp;in the low seven figures. So why are we helping them?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Washington area used to have a thriving chain of community weeklies.&nbsp;<em>The Gazette<\/em> was founded in 1959 and grew to a 550,000 circulation in suburban Maryland. They were closed down by their owners,&nbsp;<em>The Washington Post,<\/em> in 2015. In 2021, the <em>Post<\/em> achieved record breaking digital advertising. It\u2019s also owned by Big Tech&nbsp;billionaire Jeff Bezos. He purchased the company in 2013, two years before it killed the chain of weeklies. So why are&nbsp;we helping them?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gainor also pointed out that government assistance for the news media creates a dangerously close relationship between politicians and the press, one that could make political news coverage less independent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a concerted effort to get the government involved in the practice of funding journalists and journalism,\u201d said Gainor. \u201cIt is unrealistic to expect journalists funded or supported by politicians to turn around and report aggressively on those same&nbsp;politicians. We cannot expect journalists to hold powerful people accountable when they are accountable to those powerful&nbsp;people for their paychecks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd all this happens when Americans\u2019 trust in media is near an epic low. According to Gallup,&nbsp;Americans\u2019 trust in media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly has fallen to just 36 percent. For Republicans,&nbsp;that number stands at 11 percent. Why then are we bailing out corporate media, when ordinary Americans would rather find&nbsp;new sources of information?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.&nbsp;He is the author of&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/DELETED-Techs-Battle-Movement-Election\/dp\/154605930X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">#DELETED: Big Tech\u2019s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dan Gainor, who leads Big Tech and free speech watchdog operations at the Media Research Center, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1272150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1272150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1272150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1272150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1272150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}