Page 6 The Skanner Portland & Seattle December 21, 2022
News
Capitol Hill Lawmakers Push
Bill That Hurts Local and Black-
owned Newspapers
By Stacy M. Brown,
NNPA Newswire
O
n the surface, the
Journalism Compe-
tition and Preser-
vation Act sounds
like a win for news or-
ganizations that remain
committed to providing
vital information for
their communities.
It also sounds suitable
for the survival of im-
portant local news.
However, like many
pieces of legislation that
float around Capitol Hill,
flaws abound.
Intended to support
local journalism, the bill
introduced by Sen. Amy
Klobuchar (D-MN) would
create a link tax on social
media platforms.
The bill suggests law-
makers would carve out
an exception in the fed-
eral antitrust law and
allow U.S. publishers to
negotiate payment from
websites that profit from
aggregating lists of links
on the search and social
media platforms where
users can click on and
visit a news site.
In Klobuchar and her
colleagues’ attempt to
save local news from
tech behemoths like Goo-
gle, Facebook, and Twit-
ter, critics contend that
the legislation would be
the final nail in the cof-
fin of small and minori-
ty-owned
newspapers
and media companies.
The National Newspa-
per Publishers Associ-
ation (NNPA), the trade
organization represent-
ing more than 230 Af-
rican American-owned
newspapers and media
companies, count among
those objecting to the
measure.
For further clarity, the
NNPA represents the in-
terest of the Black Press
of America, which for
195 years, has published
through slavery, Jim
Crow, Civil Rights, and
the modern-day era of
Fake News.
“The JCPA would re-
quire tech platforms to
carry and pay any eligi-
ble news publisher for
‘access’ to content. While
this may, again, seem
well-intentioned at first
look, upon deeper in-
spection, the law defines
‘access’ so broadly it will
require payment for sim-
ply crawling a website
or sharing a link,” NNPA
President and CEO Dr.
Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.
wrote in an editorial.
“Similarly, while a
number of conglomer-
ates are scoped into the
bill, true independent
or small newspapers are
explicitly excluded from
the legislation because
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the bill says that an eligi-
ble publisher must earn
more than $100,000 per
year,” Chavis asserted.
The primary problem?
“The bill itself wouldn’t
address the underlying
problems that have news
organizations struggling
economically,”
Jeremy
Littau of Future Tense
wrote.
Littau further noted
the bill’s structural prob-
lem.
“The internet is built
in ways that favor free
link exchange, and news
organizations risk not
being missed if they are
booted from platforms
whose business ironical-
ly is built to deliver them
traffic,” he wrote.
“There’s no oversight
or accountability for
whatever money is paid
out to know whether the
JCPA actually works as
intended.”
Littau continued:
“Finally, there’s the
innovation problem re-
lated to who is excluded.
The JCPA would subsi-
dize dying brands and,
likely to avoid weighing
in on the tiresome debate
over whether bloggers
are journalists, creates
the $100,000 threshold
that leaves behind some
of our most promising
news startups. The fu-
ture of news can’t be
about propping up strug-
gling legacy players and
punishing innovators.”
Chavis also related that
many African American
and other BIPOC news
outlets are independent-
ly owned.
Furthermore,
these
news outlets have de-
veloped
and
grown
their audiences because
mainstream media pub-
lications excluded the
“
The Black
Press built
our own
news out-
lets to sup-
port our
own voices
perspectives of minority
voices.
“The Black Press built
our own news outlets to
support our own voices.
As a result, this legisla-
tion would only further
reinforce harmful racial
exclusion trends rather
than actually help small-
er local publications like
those in the NNPA,” Cha-
vis insisted.
“Similarly,
recent
amendments to the bill
requiring non-discrim-
ination would require
platforms to carry and
pay for hate speech and
objectionable
content
that could harm BIPOC
communities.”
He said if passed, the
JCPA would boost misin-
formation and extremist
content. News publica-
tions from either side
of the aisle that support
extremist views will re-
ceive money, and tech
platforms will be re-
quired to carry them on
their services.
“This will make it even
harder for platforms to
moderate harmful and
false content. We know
that communities like
ours will suffer most,”
Chavis concluded.
Sen. Klobuchar did not
respond to a request for
comment from the Black
Press.
Several lawmakers in
both chambers, includ-
ing Senate Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer
(D-N.Y.), Sen. Cory Book-
er (D-N.J.), Rep. Al Green
See NEWSPAPERS page 7
THANK YOU
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Proud Ground admired and
appreciated the skill
and dependability of
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We enjoyed his support of
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That is why we asked him
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We will miss you Wesley!