Thread by @WillOremus

Testifying to the House antitrust subcommittee about Big Tech's impact on the free press, Glenn Greenwald warns that laws protecting the media will empower outlets like the New York Times to "impose censorship." He compares the Times' market power to "the Amazon of journalism."

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) says he's a fan of Greenwald's work, reads him on Substack. Asks whether the media is actually a dangerous power center in itself. Greenwald agrees, says we shouldn't glorify today's media as a bulwark of democracy.

(I'm paraphrasing here, to be clear. If anyone has a verbatim transcript, please let me know.)

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) asks expert witnesses at this Congressional hearing on tech and media whether they've read "Atlas Shrugged."

"All the way back with Ayn Rand we were taught a lesson, which is that when government starts to pick winners and losers, there's no end in sight," Rep. Issa says, arguing against antitrust interventions aimed at protecting news media from dominant tech platforms.

Opposing antitrust legislation aimed at protecting the media, Greenwald claims much of the misinformation and lies in today's information environment come not from smaller voices that the online platforms have amplified but from the mainstream media itself.

One of the few genuinely hopeful signs for bipartisan cooperation at this House antitrust subcommittee hearing on tech platforms and the media is that some on both the left and right see value in approaches aimed at preserving smaller, local media in particular.

A fun subplot of this House antitrust hearing is Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) continually demanding more time to talk, subcommittee chair David Cicilline (D-RI) repeatedly saying Issa can only have extra time if others yield theirs, and others repeatedly declining to do so.

Some consensus from witnesses at this House hearing that any measures to protect news media need to avoid simply concentrating power and profits in corporate hands.

1 in 5 working journalists in America now live in NYC, DC, or LA, notes NewsGuild president Jon Schleuss.

Key context for this hearing is the introduction this week of bipartisan bills to grant news media a limited antitrust exemption to collectively negotiate with tech platforms over the use of their content: reuters.com/article/us-tec…

The U.S. bills to protect news media are similar to Australia's controversial new law, which critics decried as mostly enriching a few media giants such as Murdoch's News Corp: bbc.com/news/world-aus…

A big question is whether the US can craft a better, more equitable version.

Greenwald argues the problems of “cancel culture” and “censorious” behavior by Big Tech that Rs are railing against, are in fact driven by Big Media. "If you ask people in Silicon Valley, they will tell you they would... prefer to be out of the content moderation business.”