Friend,

Our legal team has scoured the details of the Senate’s latest bill aimed at “saving local journalism” and found the truth: The bill is a giveaway to big media companies and their armies of lobbyists. All it will do is send a tiny portion of Google’s and Facebook’s advertising revenues to non-local websites, hedge funds and giant broadcasters like Sinclair.

Earlier this spring, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D–Minnesota) and John Kennedy (R–Louisiana) reintroduced the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, 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 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. Will you sign a petition to your senators urging them to reject the JCPA?

We know how important it is to address the lack of quality journalism and reporting — especially in unserved and underserved communities across the country. But instead of addressing these issues head on, the JCPA creates a convoluted mechanism for corporate handouts to highly profitable and consolidated media companies like Sinclair.

The JCPA has momentum due to the powerful Big Media lobby pushing it, including lobbyists working on behalf of Sinclair as well as Gannett Co. and predatory hedge fund Alden Global Capital. All of these companies have cut local newsrooms to the bone even as they’ve continued to buy back stocks, go deeper into debt to acquire more local outlets, and use other financial gimmicks to enrich their owners, executives and shareholders.

Instead of rushing this bad bill through the Senate, our senators should work to pass bills that put reporters back on local beats and expand coverage in communities that companies like Sinclair have neglected.

But first, we have to stop the JCPA. Take action with us today to tell your senators: Reject the JCPA.

Thanks for taking action on this,

Candace and the rest of the Free Press Action team
freepress.net