Taxpayer Watchdog Criticizes Committee Passage of JCPA

For Immediate Release                 Contact: Abigail Graham (202-535-7492)

September 22, 2022               

Washington, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is sorely disappointed in the passage of the “Journalism Competition and Preservation Act” (JCPA) through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In response, TPA Executive Director Patrick Hedger offered the following statement:

“The JCPA is just the latest installment in a series of concerted efforts to achieve political outcomes through the use of antitrust. This bill would give the federal government unprecedented power to determine which news outlets are legitimate and which are not. This poses a number of First Amendment risks going forward.

“The tech industry has been the source of some of the most exciting innovations in years. JCPA, and other tech-focused antitrust bills would turn them into pawns the government can bully into enforcing its partisan agenda.

“If these senators were serious about allowing local news media to better compete with big tech companies, there already exist a number of viable solutions. The repeal of FCC regulations regarding media ownership and advertisements would be a great first step. However, JCPA is not a good-faith effort towards this end, but another cynical power play.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.