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college-girl199328 · 2 years ago

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This Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned members of the Senate Banking Committee that the consequences "could be extraordinarily adverse and could do long-standing harm" if Congress does not agree on a deal by the Treasury Department's estimated summer deadline.

Later that day, the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy led by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Republican Senator John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana held a hearing on the issue in which Mark Zandi, chief economist at the economic research firm Moody's Analytics, warned that it is "absolutely critical that lawmakers either increase, suspend, or verbally do away with the debt limit," adding that not doing so "would push us into a recession."

Warren echoed calls that have been made by Senate Democrats. She said that it is economically untenable to make cuts to current federal spending programs. She also said that the debt limit should not be held hostage by House Republicans eager to do so.

While Kennedy acknowledged that the debt limit provides an "opportunity to talk about our rate of growth and spending," he also said it is "unthinkable" that Congress would not extend the debt limit, saying "if you're gonna have a party, you got to pay the band, and it's time for us to pay the band."

Newsweek spoke with Warren about Kennedy's position following the meeting. Warren also spoke about the signs of bipartisanship apparent in Congress' upper chamber. This is when it comes to the issue of America providing the funds necessary to pay for the spending it has authorized.

"I think that Senator Kennedy took a position that was both smart and courageous," Warren said. "It is critical to raise the debt ceiling, no strings attached, and he's acknowledged that."

Newsweek spoke with Kennedy after hearing about his takeaways and Warren's comments.

"I'm not gonna disagree with the senator," the Louisiana Republican said, "but I'd substitute the word 'obvious' in place of smart. The United States of America cannot default on its debt. Now, I may not agree with how that debt was accumulated, and in fact, I voted against a lot of it. But, spending passed, and we have to borrow money to pay the bills."

Senator Steve Daines of Montana, chair of the GOP Senate campaign arm, told Newsweek "we cannot default."

The sentiment that Congress is committed to paying off its debts and avoiding a catastrophic default may be shared by many Senate Republicans. However, it seems to be much less prevalent among their fellow conservatives in the House.

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that House Republicans are drafting a proposal that would prepare the U.S. for a default. The House Way and Means Committee announced it would consider a measure that would prioritize some federal payments over others. This is to protect U.S. credit if a debt limit deal is not reached and America proves unable to pay its bills.

"I don't know why I should care what [Senate Republicans] think about all this when we've got a job here in the House to do with the majority to try to get somewhere," Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas, a member of the Budget Committee and policy chair of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, told Newsweek. "When the Senate does something useful, then they can come to talk to us."

Roy's sentiment is shared by others in the Freedom Caucus, including Arizona's Andy Biggs and Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Greene. The individuals said they would not accept a raising of the limit without significant cuts. However, despite their desire for cuts and an appetite on both sides of the aisle to reduce the deficit, lowering the national debt within the confines of current GOP commitments presents an uphill challenge.

House Republicans have largely expressed that they would not support cuts to Social Security and Medicare. A significant number within the Conference have also said they would not accept cuts to defense spending. The conference is also against creating additional revenue through tax hikes.

Given these stipulations, The New York Times reports that the government would have to cut 70% of the funding that goes toward programs such as Medicaid, food assistance, farm subsidies, military retirement, anti-poverty programs, veterans' health, transportation, education, law enforcement, research, and foreign affairs.

During Tuesday's Banking subcommittee hearing, Zandi addressed the findings of the March 2023 Moody's report, which predicted that drastic spending cuts, like those estimated in the Times, would spark a "recession in 2024, costing the economy 2.6 million jobs," while also harming the country's "long-term" economic growth.

"Republican cuts would plunge us into a recession and cost about two and a half million jobs," she told Newsweek. "The Republicans need to back off from this."

While senators may be aligned with Warren when it comes to the importance of extending the debt ceiling, Republicans in both chambers remain intent on utilizing this moment to ensure a curbing of the national debt.

Daines spoke directly to this issue in comments to Newsweek, saying, "we also should be able to come up with a bipartisan agreement on some kind of spending reform because the debt is out of control, not sustainable."

Kennedy similarly said that when it comes to the debt ceiling it's about "asking the president to do what we've always done, and that is to negotiate it." He emphasized that he would like to see both parties come together and figure out how they can "reduce the rate of spending and reduce the rate of debt accumulation."

Republican Congressman Buddy Carter of Georgia, a member of the Budget Committee, shared similar sentiments to those of his Senate colleagues. He told Newsweek that while the threats associated with a default "are true," that doesn't mean "we shouldn't negotiate, and we should."

"We pay our bills—there's no question about that," Carter said. "We're not willing to default on anything. We never have, and we're not inclined to accept that, but we need to have some spending restrictions."

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officeofspecialpoliticscounsel · 5 years ago

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LOUSIANA SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: "If You Hate Cops, Call Crack Heads When Something Happens"

LOUSIANA SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: “If You Hate Cops, Call Crack Heads When Something Happens”

Republican Senator John Neely Kennedy (born November 21, 1951) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the junior United States Senator from Louisiana since 2017. A Democrat-turned Republican, he previously served as the Louisiana State Treasurer from 2000 to 2017.

Born in Centreville, Mississippi, Kennedy graduated from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia…

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maturemenoftvandfilms · 6 years ago

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John Neely Kennedy Born: November 21, 1951, Centreville, MS Physique: Average Build

John Neely Kennedy is an American attorney and politician who has served as the junior United States Senator from Louisiana since 2017. A Democrat-turned Republican, he previously served as the Louisiana state treasurer from 2000 to 2017. He's married with one son.

He has a sweet face that I like. He wears tasseled loafers which I also like. So now I want to introduce him to my penis. What? I can be complicated or simple in what and who I like.

#John Neely Kennedy #politician #mydaddywiki #us congressman

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localbizlift · 7 years ago

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Sen. Kennedy to Mark Zuckerberg: ‘Your user agreement sucks’

As Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook testimony stretches on, a rough exchange with Senator John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana produced some of the day’s more memorable sound bites.

“Mr. Zuckerberg, I come in peace. I don’t want to vote to have to regulate Facebook, but by God I will,” Sen. Kennedy began his short exchange. “In fact, a lot of that depends on you. I’m a little disappointed in this hearing today, I just don’t feel like we’re connecting.”

From there Kennedy railed against Zuckerberg for how Facebook communicated its user data policies with users of the product.

“Your user agreement sucks,” the Republican senator went on. “The purpose of that user agreement is to cover Facebook’s rear end, it’s not to inform your users about their rights. Now you know that, and I know that. I’m going to suggest to you that you go back home and rewrite it.”

From here on, the exchange with an understandably tired Zuckerberg was a little rough. Kennedy’s knowledge of the Facebook product seemed to be a bit limited and Zuckerberg’s inability to respond with something not beginning with “Senator, we already…” didn’t help.

The testimony continues…

Zuckerberg testifies at congressional hearings

#marketing

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pmsocialmedia · 7 years ago

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Sen. Kennedy to Mark Zuckerberg: ‘Your user agreement sucks’

As Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook testimony stretches on, a rough exchange with Senator John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana produced some of the day’s more memorable sound bites.

From there Kennedy railed against Zuckerberg for how Facebook communicated its user data policies with users of the product.

The testimony continues…

Zuckerberg testifies at congressional hearings

via Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2Hde3A0

#IFTTT #Social – TechCrunch

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workfromhom · 7 years ago

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Sen. Kennedy to Mark Zuckerberg: ‘Your user agreement sucks’

As Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook testimony stretches on, a rough exchange with Senator John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana produced some of the day’s more memorable sound bites.

From there Kennedy railed against Zuckerberg for how Facebook communicated its user data policies with users of the product.

The testimony continues…

Zuckerberg testifies at congressional hearings

from Facebook – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2Hde3A0 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Facebook – TechCrunch

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narcisbolgor-blog · 7 years ago

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‘Tough as a boiled owl’: Louisiana senator charms Washington with wit

Washington (CNN)Republican Sen. John Neely Kennedy seems to have a saying -- or three -- for just about anything, including the Senate floor debate this week on immigration.

"Let everyone stand up and be counted before God and country," he told another set of reporters.

"It's time," he also said, "to put up or shut up."

The Louisiana lawyer has been in the Senate a little more than a year, but he's already become one of the most sought-after interviews in Washington, in part because he spews out witty one-liners, as he might say "faster than green grass goes through a goose."

Take, for instance, the way he called Arizona's Republican Sen. John McCain "tough as a boiled owl" or how he explained last fall, in his thick Southern drawl, that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was backing a health care bill "like a cat on a fat rat."

Skeptical of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which estimates the costs of various bills, Kennedy remarked last fall that it makes "those late-night psychic hotlines that you see advertised reputable."

And don't forget how he summed up the controversial memo written by Rep. Devin Nunes, a fellow Republican: "If you're completely confused, you understand it perfectly."

In a world of wonky jargon and arcane procedural rules, Kennedy -- and his colorful way with words -- stands out on Capitol Hill.

The junior senator from Louisiana went relatively unnoticed during his first few months in Washington, but his profile has steadily risen as he's become a reliable fixture for memorable hallway interviews and TV appearances. He also became a viral sensation in December after a brutally simplistic grilling of one of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees.

Kennedy says he considers it his responsibility to make it easier for constituents to navigate the tricky political landscape of Washington.

"I just think you ought to talk straight with your people. It's none of this, 'Let me say this about that.' Just say it, for God's sakes," he told CNN in an interview, sporting a bright green tie speckled with tiny crawfish. "I think the American people, with some justification, think that most politicians live in la-la land."

'Old school' Louisiana populism

His folksy demeanor is unmistakable, but below the surface is a former state treasurer and longtime lawyer who reads The Economist cover to cover each week and earned degrees from elite schools like Vanderbilt, the University of Virginia and Oxford University.

"He's an interesting guy, isn't he?" said Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama. "He's witty, but if you think about what he's saying, it makes sense a lot of the time."

Kennedy believes part of his rhetorical style was honed while trying to keep students' attention when he was an adjunct professor at Louisiana State University's law school for 15 years. "Just to make sure they're not all looking at pornography, I'd just try to keep livening up the lecture."

Perhaps his most animated speech comes when he's lamenting the gridlock and fierce partisanship in Washington. "That's why the aliens won't talk to us," Kennedy said recently. "They look at all of this stuff, and they go, 'These people ... they're 13-year-olds.' "

Kennedy, unlike some members too afraid of ruffling feathers, has commented freely on a range of issues and offered clear-eyed analysis of his own party's reckonings. Amid the GOP's infighting over tax reform, Kennedy offered a food analogy.

"It's like taking a big ol' piece of cheesecake and putting a bunch of spinach on top and saying you can't eat the cheesecake till you eat the spinach," he said once, describing disputes that leaders had to resolve last fall before passing a final bill.

He's even called out his colleagues in a decidedly anatomical way. Senators need to "grow some oranges and ... make some hard decisions," he said in September, talking about fiscal issues. Too many of them "have been dictionary definition of weenies," he added.

Sen. Kennedy on his colleagues: 'They're all pigs'

Shortly after Trump allegedly described certain nations as "shithole countries" amid immigration negotiations earlier this year, Kennedy argued Americans were growing irritated by scandal-clad distractions that threaten legislative efforts. "They didn't know that 'The Jerry Springer Show' was in syndication," he said. "We need to get this thing back headed in the right direction."

He was also critical of his party's agenda last year as some Republicans were still trying to tackle a health care bill in September while others had moved on to an overhaul of the US tax system. He said they're running around "like a bunch of free range chickens" and need to focus on one major issue at a time.

Paul Baier, a law professor at LSU who has observed Kennedy's career for nearly two decades, said the senator's style is derived from "the old school of Louisiana politicians" who took a populist approach in their rhetoric. "He's interested in talking on the plane of the common man, and that's a tradition in Louisiana's political world," he said.

When it looked unclear at one point last fall that Republicans had enough votes to pass their tax bill, Kennedy said the public's patience was growing thin: "I think the American people will look at all of us and say, 'I can't believe you people didn't pass this bill. How did you make it out of the birth canal? A pox on all your houses.'"

This kind of rhetorical style allows him to vent about fellow legislators in a way that is attention-getting but non-offensive, according to Allison Burkette, an associate professor at the University of Mississippi and expert on sociolinguistics.

"In other words, he can be critical without looking like a jerk," she said. "And he can make statements that are then repeated by others because of their 'charm.' "

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, the senior senator from Louisiana, said Kennedy is effective in getting people to mention his point over and over. "It's unique, isn't it?" Cassidy said, when asked about Kennedy's style -- though he was reluctant to describe it as a Louisiana-specific trait.

"People in Louisiana enjoy and appreciate the humor," he said. "To try and put a label upon everybody in Louisiana is impossible because it really is a colorful state. So might he occasionally quote something that he heard from somebody else? Absolutely. But is there still sort of a unique accentuation that he plays to? That's, I think, his own particular talent."

'Be yourself, unless you suck'

While Kennedy's expressions have built up his reputation on Capitol Hill, it was his questioning of district court judge nominee Matthew Petersen in December that truly put him on the map beyond the Beltway. Kennedy zeroed in on Petersen's lack of relevant experience and hit him with a series of basic questions about the law. Petersen failed the quiz, and video of the moment spread rapidly across the internet.

Petersen withdrew his nomination less than a week later.

Kennedy was also on the national stage when he tangled with late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel last fall. After Kennedy knocked Kimmel for criticizing efforts to repeal and replace the health care law, Kimmel, who also sparred with Cassidy, responded by calling Kennedy "lady," "inbred" and a "character" who Republicans "drag out of the swamp" to defend repeal and replace legislation.

Kennedy, a former Democrat, is frequently mentioned as a potential contender for governor. While he embraces an outsider persona, he's been involved with politics since the late 1980s, when he held key positions in Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer's administration.

He ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Senate in 2004 as a Democrat, and again, as a Republican, in 2008. In the meantime, he served as state treasurer for five terms, from 2000 to 2017, along with teaching law school and volunteering as a substitute teacher in public schools.

Kennedy said he mostly gets his expressions from reading and he makes an effort to remember the clever sayings he comes across. But most of the time, he said, they just pop out. "I know that is probably a sad testament to the way my mind works," he said. "But it is what it is."

His favorite saying of late, however, comes from a country music song by Roy Clark. "Thank God and greyhounds it's over, you know?" Kennedy said in several interviews after the three-day government shutdown last month.

Kennedy has been a reliable vote for Republicans so far in the Senate, but he has sometimes left leaders waiting on his decisions until the last minute. When Republicans were trying to reauthorize a crucial federal surveillance program last month, Kennedy was a holdout until the very end on a key procedural vote, creating drama on the Senate floor. Leaders scrambled to lobby him to support reauthorization, which he ultimately did.

Still, the moment suggested that Kennedy could be a wild card on future votes.

"As an old friend of mine once told me, 'Just be yourself, unless you suck,' " Kennedy said. "And none of us think we suck, so you're just better off being yourself, and you know, that's the way I've always been, frankly."

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civilrightsolmos-blog · 2 years ago

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Republican Sen. John Kennedy unleashes racist broadside against Mexicans

Mexicans “would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback” Steakhouse restaurant if it were not for their nation’s proximity to the US, and their country should be invaded because of the presence of drug cartels there, the US senator John Neely Kennedy has said. The Louisiana Republican’s racist remarks drew a strong condemnation from Mexico’s foreign affairs…

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#AMLO #Crime #Drug Cartel #Mexico #Miliary Action #Noronia #US Senator John Kennedy

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anchorarcade · 7 years ago

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Congress votes to disallow consumers from suing Equifax and other companies with arbitration agreements

http://ryanguillory.com/congress-votes-to-disallow-consumers-from-suing-equifax-and-other-companies-with-arbitration-agreements/

Congress votes to disallow consumers from suing Equifax and other companies with arbitration agreements

The Senate voted late Wednesday night to strike a federal rule that would have allowed consumers affected by the Equifax hack to sue the company. Without it, the millions affected by the historic security breach may be disallowed from related joining class action lawsuits. This specific rule, and only this rule, would be nullified if the joint resolution is signed by the President.

The vote was 50/50, with the tie-breaking yea cast by Vice President Pence.

The rule in question was entered into the Federal Register by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection in July; it prevents financial companies that bind their users by arbitration agreements from prohibiting those same users from suing as a class.

The final rule prohibits covered providers of certain consumer financial products and services from using an agreement with a consumer that provides for arbitration of any future dispute between the parties to bar the consumer from filing or participating in a class action concerning the covered consumer financial product or service.

That’s exactly like what the terms of Equifax’s services included when users went to the company’s site to see if they were affected by the hack. Although the site in question appears to have been essentially useless, it shunted users into an Equifax-provided service with terms that bound disputes to be resolved via arbitration.

Equifax later modified some of its terms to remove the arbitration clause, and also indicated in its TrustedID service FAQ that the clause “applies to the free credit file monitoring and identity theft protection products, and not the cybersecurity incident.”

Nevertheless, it’s very unclear just what users may or may not have signed up for, and to what degree Equifax is protected by these terms. Arbitration agreements have been effective before in preventing class action lawsuits. The BCFP rule was made to prevent major incidents like this one from having their legal repercussions partly nullified;

H.J. Res. 111 was introduced on July 20, the day after the rule above was instituted. Its entire purpose is to disapprove of that specific rule.

It passed the House on July 25 231-190, split right down party lines except for one defecting Republican who voted nay with the Democrats. In the Senate, it was split 50/50, with two Republicans — Louisiana’s John Neely Kennedy and South Carolina’s Lindsay Graham — joining the Democrats with nays. The VP broke the tie and the Joint Resolution passed shortly before 10PM Eastern time. The Monopoly Man was not present.

It’s not entirely clear what effect, if any, this would have on the Equifax situation specifically, since the company has voluntarily limited the scope of its arbitration terms, although clearly it is a serious blow to consumer protections at large.

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awesomefelicitylewis-blog · 7 years ago

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Congress votes to disallow consumers from suing Equifax and other companies with arbitration agreements

http://ryanguillory.com/congress-votes-to-disallow-consumers-from-suing-equifax-and-other-companies-with-arbitration-agreements/

Congress votes to disallow consumers from suing Equifax and other companies with arbitration agreements

The vote was 50/50, with the tie-breaking yea cast by Vice President Pence.

H.J. Res. 111 was introduced on July 20, the day after the rule above was instituted. Its entire purpose is to disapprove of that specific rule.

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thisdaynews · 5 years ago

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Inside the media industry’s struggle to take on Silicon Valley

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/inside-the-media-industrys-struggle-to-take-on-silicon-valley/

Inside the media industry’s struggle to take on Silicon Valley

Google and Facebook control 60 percent of online ad dollars and can decide the fate of newsrooms by tweaking their algorithms. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

technology

U.S. news companies are using a playbook from Europe to challenge the online platforms they see as an existential threat.

Executives from some of the biggest U.S. news organizations met with a British economist last fall at Washington’s exclusive Metropolitan Club to strategize on a mutual obsession: getting their industry out from under the thumb of Google and Facebook.

Over a breakfast of bacon and eggs in a private banquet room, executives from CNN, USA Today and Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones listened intently as Dame Frances Cairncross described how British publishers are navigating the internet giants’ domination of the news business, an attendee from the media delegation told POLITICO. During the session, the details of which have not been previously disclosed, Cairncross in turn sought the perspective of the American media for a report, commissioned by then-Prime Minister Theresa May, on the fate of journalism in the digital age.

Story Continued Below

The meetingwas part of an ongoing campaign by news publishers in the U.S. and Europe to counter the growing power of Silicon Valley — a significant, if often overlooked, aspect of the anti-tech backlash brewing on both sides of the Atlantic. And it comes amid an existential struggle for most U.S. news companies, at a time when Google and Facebook control 60 percent of online ad dollars and can decide the fate of newsrooms by tweaking their algorithms.

The news companies’ efforts have taken many forms, including complaints with regulators and lawmakers in multiple countries about tech’s alleged antitrust or copyright violations. But the American publishers’ major focus at the moment is persuading Congress to grant them an exemption from antitrust law, which would let them combine forces to negotiate the terms of the online platforms’ use of their news content.

That effort, which recently got a plug from Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, echoes the tactic behind a new European Union copyright directive that gives publishers greater economic leverage against tech. That EU law is the result of years of hit-or-miss efforts to combat what the media companies call a Google-Facebook “digital duopoly.”

U.S. media advocates say they have drawn major lessons from discussions with their European counterparts, including the need to band together and put aside their traditional rivalries.

“The European publishers have been ahead of us,” said David Chavern, president and CEO of the News Media Alliance, which represents about 2,000 media organizations in the U.S. and elsewhere. “The biggest lesson learned is that you need collective action by the publishers. No one publisher, even a really big publisher, in itself can impact the relationship with the platforms. You need everybody to coordinate.”

The combatants include some of the media industry’s biggest players — among them the major German publisher Axel Springer SE as well as News Corp., the U.S. company founded by Rupert Murdoch that owns Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal. (Axel Springer is the co-owner, along with POLITICO, of POLITICO Europe.) The involvement of such media powerhouses has inspired some eye-rolling among some Silicon Valley defenders in Washington, even if the vast majority of U.S. newsrooms have spent the past decade in an economic free fall.

“If only somebody would help Rupert Murdoch,” quipped Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel of the tech trade group NetChoice, whose members include Facebook and Google.

Chavern, a former U.S. Chamber of Commerce executive, has repeatedly traveled to Europe to learn from his EU counterparts about their combat with tech. During a January trip to Berlin, he met with VG Media, a so-called collecting society that serves as a clearinghouse for fees owed to news publishers, and sat down with Axel Springer’s chief lobbyist, Dietrich von Klaeden.

Chavern said he plans to head back to the continent in the fall.

Meanwhile, von Klaeden has been to the United States more than a half-dozen times over the past year to explain the European media strategy and make the case for changes in Washington, he told POLITICO Europe in an interview.

Von Klaeden has spread the message in the U.S. that when it comes to news publishers’ dealings with Google and Facebook, it’s possible to “get the dollar to change direction.”

“It’s important for the U.S. to maintain the momentum,” said von Klaeden, who sits on the News Media Alliance’s board.

In February, shortly after Chavern returned from Europe, Cairncross issued the results of her investigation into the state of the British news industry. Among the conclusions of the 160-page report were that “the government must take steps to ensure the position of Google and Facebook does not do undue harm to publishers.”

The publishers’ efforts in the EU have already borne fruit. This spring, amid an intense lobbying campaign by the media and other industries, the European Parliament and European Council in Brussels adopted sweeping copyright legislation that includes a so-called publisher’s right provision, giving news organizations the right to demand payment for the small snippets of news that appear on Google News and elsewhere. Critics call it a “link tax.“

European media had years of misfires before getting some traction against the major internet companies. In 2014, Spain passed a law requiring payments to Spanish publications whose content populated Google News. Google reacted by shuttering the service there, and it remains closed.

But unlike in the Spanish case, publishers say that under the new EU-wide regulation, they’ll be in a position to trade payments for other concessions from the tech platforms, such as access to data collected on their digital audiences. (EU member states have two years from the date of passage to enshrine the directive into their national laws.)

In the U.S., the News Media Alliance is throwing its lobbying efforts behind a bill that would give publishers a time-limited exemption from antitrust law, allowing them to negotiate together to make content deals with online providers without being charged with illegal collusion.

The legislation represents a major change in the media companies’ strategy: Until recently, individual American publishers attempted to negotiate one-off, ad hoc deals with Google and Facebook in attempts to extract more money or more online readership data on better terms. It was, they say, an unsatisfying experience.

One thing going for American news organizations is that in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, both Democrats and Republicans began turning on Google and Facebook over everything from Russian election interference to the proliferation of online hate speech to, in the GOP’s case, unproven allegations of anti-conservative bias.

That anger is beginning to manifest itself in concrete action in Washington. In late July, the Justice Department announced a broad antitrust review of the major tech platforms; a person familiar with the situation said the media companies’ grievances are on the DOJ’s radar. A day later, after being hit by a $5 billion privacy fine from the Federal Trade Commission, Facebook disclosed that it was the subject of a new FTC antitrust investigation.

At least one media mogul isn’t waiting for regulators to take notice of the news industry’s unhappiness. News Corp. has in recent years complained to the European Commission about Google’s scraping of its news and has argued to Australian authorities that Silicon Valley firms need to be more heavily regulated. Last summer, the company urged the FTC to look into whether any of the online platforms are behaving like a “bottleneck monopolist” by dictating what kind of relationship news outlets have with their digital audiences.

News Corp. is also a member of the News Media Alliance and sits on its board. But Chavern said his group isn’t pinning its hopes on federal antitrust regulators in the U.S., whose investigations can take years to wrap up. (An FTC antitrust case against the chip maker Qualcomm begun in January of 2017 is still ongoing.)

“I’m not asking the government to do anything other than leave us alone,” said Chavern. “I’m trying to drive an immediate solution for news publishers to build a sustainable future.”

Still, the group has taken advantage of Congress’ growing interest in cracking down on tech companies to press its agenda.

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), chairman of the House Judiciary Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee, chose to devote the first hearing of his wide-ranging tech industry investigation to the fate of the “free and diverse press.” Cicilline used the June hearing to call attention to the News Media Alliance’s proposed antitrust exemption, which he is sponsoring in the House.

In the Senate, the backers of the bipartisan legislation are Louisiana Republican John Neely Kennedy and Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

While getting any legislation through Congress at the moment is an uphill task, the House bill has gotten traction on the presidential campaign trail with Sanders, who linked to the measure in a recent op-ed, saying, “We must also explore new ways to empower media organizations to collectively bargain with these tech monopolies.”

And the tech industry is seeing the push for the antitrust exemption as enough of a threat to quietly lobby against it. That’s in part because the country’s publishers are a unique kind of Silicon Valley critic, with built-in high public profiles and longstanding political connections.

“We’ve worked for many years to be a collaborative and supportive technology and advertising partner to the news industry as it works to adapt to the new economics of the internet,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement, saying the company drives tens of billions of clicks to news sites that spur ad revenue and subscriptions.

Facebook declined to comment on the record, but a person familiar with the company’s thinking said it believes that the proposed media antitrust exemption could lead to the sort of news blackouts that sometimes result from the breakdown in negotiations over cable programming.

The internet giants have lately touted a series of initiatives to work more closely with the media. In March 2018, for example, Google said it was putting $300 million into a “Google News Initiative,” which provides funding, training and digital tools to local news outlets. Facebook, meanwhile, is planning to launch a “news tab” under which the company will reportedly pay publishers for content.

To support the U.S. legislation, the News Media Alliance is connecting lawmakers with representatives of their local newspapers to make their case.

Kevin Riley, the editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said he overcame the awkwardness of getting engaged in politics to talk to Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on House Judiciary, about the challenges facing his paper in the digital era. (Collins is a co-sponsor of the media antitrust bill.)

“You don’t want to be in a position that you’re lobbying people you cover, but I wanted him to know how important it was,” said Riley, who also testified at Cicilline’s hearing in June.

Riley said he stopped short of asking Collins to support the exemption: “The [News Media] Alliance can take it from there.”

Critics of the bills say Congress has been rightly reluctant to create loopholes in the country’s antitrust rules. And, they say, an exemption for publishers has been tried in the past, without much success. In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed an exemption allowing local news publishers to enter into joint operating agreements, which allowed competing newspapers in the same city to combine their business operations while maintaining separate newsrooms.

Some opponents charge that the move only shored up entrenched media giants to the detriment of up-and-coming outlets.

“Generally, society as a whole abhors cartels. So why pass a statute to create one?” said Jonathan Jacobson, a former member of the congressionally mandated Antitrust Modernization Commission, which warned in 2007 against such exemptions. (Jacobson, a lawyer in private practice, has Google as a client, though he said he isn’t speaking for it.)

But advocates for the measure say that times and circumstances have changed — and that newspapers and other media outlets, though crucial to American democracy, are in the untenable position of competing for revenue with the online platforms that distribute their content.

“I think the bargaining power between any individual publisher and a tech platform is just too vast,” said Sally Hubbard, director of enforcement strategy at the Open Markets Institute, an advocacy group critical of the tech industry.

The News Media Alliance had a high-profile misstep in its U.S. campaign. A study it released in June, which was featured in The New York Times, asserted that Google made about $4.7 billion off news publishers’ content in 2018. That number met with immediate skepticism, and the director of Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab called the figure “imaginary.”

But the group says it’s seeing the political winds in the U.S. blowing in its favor. Chavern said board members recently told him they were encouraged to see the traction the group’s campaign is getting, urging him to “punch the gas.”

Matthew Karnitschnig contributed to this report.

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