Cicilline optimistic Congress will advance bill seeking to preserve media outlets
U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., said Wednesday he’s optimistic about the fate of legislation aimed at helping struggling newspapers and other media outlets compete against online platforms that publish their content without paying for it.
“There’s strong bipartisan interest,” Cicilline said of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which he originally introduced in 2019 and resubmitted earlier this year. He said he expects the House Judiciary Committee to send the bill to the House floor in “the coming months.”
Cicilline joined Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, in delivering an update on the legislation via a virtual news conference organized by Courtney's office. Courtney was an original co-sponsor of the bill.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and John Kennedy, R-La., have submitted a Senate version.
"Journalism is under unprecedented stress,” Courtney said. "Since 2004, 60 dailies have closed, and hundreds and hundreds of counties in the United States are news deserts (devoid of local coverage). For the remaining papers and other outlets, there continues to be a lot of churn internally — downsizing. For people like myself ... David (Cicilline) and I notice.”
They put much of the blame on Big Tech platforms like Facebook and Google, which derive advertising revenue from news content they post and provide links to but neither produce nor pay for. The legislation would establish a 48-month “safe harbor” period in which news publishers could band together to negotiate terms of an agreement with the online platforms with the goal of improving the quality of news and access to it.
Cicilline said a congressional investigation confirmed that platforms like Facebook and Google control more than half of all online advertising revenue, a dominance he said they exploit and will fight tooth and nail to preserve.
Three out of four Americans get their news from these platforms, Cicilline said.
Courtney, who co-chairs the congressional Friends of Australia Caucus, noted that Australia tackled the matter earlier this year, passing a law that requires tech companies to pay publishers for news content. Facebook and Google put up a “furious effort” to block the legislation, he said.
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