Over the last six years, we’ve learned that the Washington D.C. Uniparty, which exists in both Congress and the administrative state, will do anything to maintain its grip on power. Today, it emerged that Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (Uniparty-KY) has agreed to include in the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act a provision that will allow old-line media companies to create a cartel dictating how their material will be carried on the internet. That this newly created power has nothing to do with defense, will harm the flow of information to Americans, and will prop up a malevolent arm of the Democrat party is irrelevant.

What McConnell said “yes” to is something called the “Journalism Competition and Preservation Act.” And “yes,” in case you’re wondering, it means that the Uniparty has interceded in the free flow of information to prop up an otherwise dying institution—and one, moreover, that is dying because of its incompetence, partisanship, and corruption.

Breitbart provides further information:

Proponents of the JCPA have been struggling for over a year to move the controversial proposal through Congress, hitting roadblocks every step of the way in committee hearings and fierce opposition from Republicans like McCarthy and others including Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, Marsha Blackburn, Tom Cotton, and more.

That’s why lobbyists supporting the bill on behalf of deep-pocketed industry interests zoned in on two must-pass legislative vehicles in this lame duck session of Congress as last ditch efforts to pass it before the GOP formally takes control of the House next year: the NDAA or a spending bill like an omnibus spending bill currently also being negotiated.

[snip]

The JCPA, essentially a transfer of wealth from Silicon Valley to the discredited and distrusted corporate legacy media, is highly controversial. Beyond the financial payouts to media companies, they will be able to form a “joint negotiating entity”—a cartel, immune from antitrust law—to negotiate with Big Tech companies on the “terms and conditions” for carrying their content.

Censorship is sure to be a frequent demand of media companies. Despite provisions in the bill that purportedly stop media companies from negotiating the suppression of any one competitor, there is nothing to stop them asking their content to be prioritized over broadly-drawn categories that are used as pretexts for censorship, like “disinformation.”

That’s the polite explanation. Ace is more colorful, which means he also gets to the heart of the matter:

The law would allow the media to form a monopoly cartel for purposes of negotiating with social media regarding the rules for carrying their stories.

The law would also allow legacy media to demand that social media not carry the stories of non-legacy media, or brand criticism of them "disinformation," or demand that social media companies limit criticism of them, or demand that criticism of them be banned altogether if the social media company wants to link their stories.

Or to demand that platforms exercise certain preferred censorship policies in exchange for the right of posting their stories.

Say goodbye to Twitter's brief period of relative free-ness -- this bill is designed to force Elon Musk to re-institute all the censorship policies that existed previously.

The question is why McConnell would rush to help the Democrats in this way when their total control over Congress ends in a little over a month? Ace thinks he knows:

Because he's afraid that a Republican House won't fund Ukraine as lavishly as the Democrats would.

So he's prioritizing Ukraine over America.

That’s not just Ace’s opinion. It’s what McConnell said out loud:

“It’s a difficult choice, frankly,” McConnell acknowledged. “If you’re interested in reducing spending, probably the best way to do that would be a one-year CR.”

“If, on the other hand, you’re concerned about the defense of our country and the funding of the Ukraine war, you’re somewhat hesitant to go in that direction,” he said. 

McConnell’s calculus: Focus on America’s financial situation and refuse to prop up a corrupt, partisan mainstream media? No! Continue the Ukraine grift while throwing a huge gift to the corrupt mainstream media? Yes. Yes! YES!!!

The RINO class is worse than the Democrats because the Democrats, at least, have principles. Horrible principles, but principles nonetheless. The same cannot be said for the RINOs, whether you’re looking at McConnell, Romney, Murkowski, or any of their crew, all of whom will do anything just to stay near the grift.

Image: Mitch McConnell by DonkeyHotey. CC BY-SA 2.0.