Tell Congress: Reject the JCPA
Unsplash user Caleb Perez
Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D–Minnesota) and John Kennedy (R–Louisiana) have reintroduced the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), an industry-written bill that would allow news publishers — including broadcast companies — to extract payments from large social-media enterprises like Alphabet and Meta in exchange for linking to their content.
Here’s the catch: The bill is a giveaway to big media companies and their armies of lobbyists. And the JCPA would apply to any content regardless of its accuracy or news value. And one of the biggest beneficiaries of this bill is Sinclair, a conglomerate that seems determined to get rid of local news and replace it with right-wing lies produced at a “National Desk” far removed from the communities the company is legally obligated to serve.
We expect this bill to move quickly and we need all hands on deck to stop it. Sign a petition to your senators urging them to reject the JCPA.
To the Senate:
The impulse in Congress to support journalists and confront the growing power of Big Tech is right, but the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act is the wrong answer. The bill is a giveaway to big media companies and their armies of lobbyists. News deserts and hardworking journalists wouldn’t benefit from this bill; rather, the JCPA is a bailout for the very same corporations that have laid off journalists and harmed communities with consolidation and dwindling coverage while their C-Suite executives have made millions.
The JCPA fails to recognize the real crisis in journalism: It’s the smaller outlets with diverse or dissenting voices that are most in need of help, and this legislation largely dismisses their needs and those of the communities they serve. It doesn’t support the kinds of news innovation starting to happen in communities across the United States that had previously lacked local and responsive sources of news and information — communities that have been neglected by the same companies pushing hardest for this legislation.
The deceitful and racist content peddled by the likes of Fox News and Sinclair Broadcast Group isn’t worth subsidizing. Vulture hedge funds like Alden Global Capital won’t use their JCPA windfall to help local journalists or support the kinds of reporting that prioritize truth-telling, equity and accountability.
Instead of encouraging collusion, Congress should pursue public policies that ensure funds reach newsroom workers, not just their bosses. We need policies that support vigorous local reporting, invest in noncommercial outlets and better serve communities with the news and information they need to participate in our democracy.
We are asking that you reject the JCPA’s bailout of Big Media, and instead focus on prioritizing investing public funds into communities where it’s needed most, and to fill the gaps left by a commercial media market that too often ignores the information needs of BIPOC, rural and poor communities, who have long been misrepresented by traditional news outlets.