L.A. “Tony” Kovach
WND.com. Parler. OANN TV. Newsmax TV. Prager U videos. A deposed President Donald J. Trump. These are just some of the media operations and a high-profile billionaire that have been substantially demonetized, throttled, and/or “deplatformed” in recent years by powerful corporations. Parler was taken completely offline for weeks before finally making a comeback. Thankfully, WND has avoided Parler’s fate (being taken offline). But what is to be done about this pattern of abusive misbehavior by corporate giants? Are not millions of Americans hurt by this nefarious process? How can those impacted fight back?
Let’s note that antitrust and other laws may create penalties for calling for a boycott of a named business. So, let’s be clear that we are not hereby calling for a boycott.
That said, as to who is harmed, Reuters reported research that determined that oligopoly style of monopolization spreading in the U.S. costs Americans jobs and reportedly reduces employees pay by some 20%. So, this threat goes beyond dissenting liberals or conservatives in media. This hurts YOU and your loved ones financially.
Notable Democrat-supporting liberal Robert F. Kennedy Jr., J.D., (RFK Jr.) is suing corporate media giants. As WND reported, Kennedy said, “Nobody has ever complied their way out of totalitarianism.”
Kennedy’s lawsuit is significant because it is based on antitrust law.
Unlike some who file suits and never win, Kennedy and his organization have enjoyed several big court victories, including a recent one. The Defender explained, “Federal antitrust law prohibits firms from colluding to deny critical facilities or market access to rivals.”
From the complaint itself: “CHD with this lawsuit aims to vindicate the freedom of speech and of the press. The Defendants are the BBC, The Washington Post, the Associated Press, and Reuters.”
There are other hopeful developments about pushback against corporate giants.
“Red state” attorneys general and a treasurer reviewed their states’ investments and made the decision to pull investments in those corporate giants. State-level probes foreshadow litigation. Several in big tech had their stocks take big hits in 2022. When “get woke and go broke” becomes a meaningful risk, it could in time cause changes among leftist corporate leadership.
If individuals decide to no longer do business with a company or a parent company of a firm because they have targeted liberal or conservative voices that don’t blindly follow the corporate-government party line, so be it. Given the moves outlined by state officials, those who make such a choice could be in good company. Furthermore, we still possess First Amendment and other God-given and constitutionally protected rights. Obviously, people should avoid feeding hands that bite theirs.
People of goodwill should actively support – financially and through reading/viewing engagement – operations like WND that have been wrongfully targeted by corrupt crony capitalists and their federal, political henchmen.
The Civic Alliance and World Economic Forum (WEF) are two umbrella groups that have used corporate influence to push public officials for policies that big businesses apparently favor. Civic Alliance and WEF corporate member lists are found at this link. You may be surprised how many of those firms are often the epitome of the 0.1 of 1 percent “establishment elites” who have “rigged the system” in their own favor and that your business and/or family are buying products or services from.
So, on one level, people should discern if they should or should not financially support companies or organizations because their politics threaten the people’s rights and livelihood.
Congress and state officials can and should hold hearings on these issues.
Republicans were punished by numbers of Civic Alliance/WEF members following the 2020 elections. NPR didn’t mention the Civic Alliance or WEF in its report on corporations that punished the GOP, perhaps in part because some of those firms are donors to PBS and NPR. But a check of that corporate member list of WEF and Civic Alliance firms reveals several “hits” with companies NPR affiliate GBU named.
Popular author and WND columnist Patrice Lewis made a related point recently. Those threatened or oppressed by corporate powers ought to establish their own list of parallel institutions.
As an example of how readers can promote “A Free Press for a Free People,” which WND has been for 25 years, consider this. If you call into talk radio, why not mention WND.com on air? Make WND part of the point you’re making. Mention an article you read. Keep in mind that call screeners are looking out for plugs, so you may candidly mention a generic point to a call screener, but specifically mention an article’s headline and WND.com by name once on air.
Social media may throttle conservatives and liberals who oppose the rigged system, but sharing links to a topic whenever possible can help.
Fine examples of recent WND reports worth sharing are the ones linked here and here. Both are hot topics.
Those points said, let’s pivot back to the example from RFK Jr’s legal action. Per the pleadings are the following.
“1. This is an antitrust action.
2. It is also an action to defend the freedom of speech and of the press.”
Note how the following applies to WND, OANN, Newsmax, or Prager U, among others.
8. The world’s dominant Internet platforms are facilities essential to the ability of small news publishers to compete and even to survive in the online news market. Indeed, for all practical purposes, to be denied access to those platforms is to be denied access to the market itself.
9. Thus the TNI [Trusted News Initiative] is a classic group boycott: “a concerted attempt by a group of competitors” to “disadvantage [other] competitors” by “cut[ting] off access” to a “facility or market necessary to enable the boycotted firm[s] to compete.” Northwest Wholesale Stationers, 472 U.S. at 294.
10. Plaintiffs are among the many victims of the TNI’s agreement and its group boycott.
11. Plaintiffs are online news publishers who, as a result of the TNI’s group boycott, have been censored, de-monetized, demoted, throttled, shadow-banned, and/or excluded entirely from platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Linked-In.
12. While the “Trusted News Initiative” publicly purports to be a self-appointed “truth police” extirpating online “misinformation,” in fact it has suppressed wholly accurate and legitimate reporting in furtherance of the economic self-interest of its members.
13. For example, TNI members have deemed the following to be “misinformation” that could not be published on the world’s dominant Internet platforms: (A) reporting that COVID may have originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China; (B) reporting that the COVID vaccines do not prevent infection; (C) reporting that vaccinated persons can transmit COVID to others; and (D) reporting that compromising emails and videos were found on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden.”
There are numbers of takeaways from the above. One is that Kennedy, a Democrat, is indirectly exposing the Biden family and Democratic corruption through this litigation. Conservatives should bear in mind that perhaps 65 to 80% of the country largely agree on a range of issues. Strategic thinkers should carefully unpack the information linked here, because bigger audiences – and more supporters – are available.
Let’s conclude by citing two items on WND that point to solutions to these vexing issues.
The first by this writer made the case for robust antitrust action.
Another is a related December 2022 topic that is essential for Christians and people of good will to grasp.
Lawmakers and public officials must be pushed into action. Elections are important, but engagement must be ongoing. The political left and corporate power have made an unholy alliance that never sleeps in the view of observers like Justin Haskins at the Heartland Institute. The money power must be uprooted to turn the tide in the battle for America’s futre and that of you and your loved ones. Carefully read the linked items to learn more. Prayer with good deeds works.
L.A. “Tony” Kovach is the co-founder of MHProNews and MHLivingNews which are widely acknowledged to be the largest, most-read and evidence-based trade media serving the affordable housing and mobile home/manufactured housing profession and consumers.
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