Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) threw cold water on Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) after he claimed the media was "colluding" against conservatives.
At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Jordan contended that the Global Alliance for Responsible Media had conspired with its members to avoid advertising on conservative outlets.
"They came together, agreed to limit advertising on certain platforms and news outlets that millions— millions of Americans choose to read, watch, and listen to," Jordan claimed. "They collude to make sure that no other advertisers support any news outlets, platforms, or creators that these massive companies don't agree with."
"And these people do not like conservatives," he insisted. "They will use their cartel to eliminate competition based on internal biases of these massive companies, and they will deprive Americans of the content that they actually want to consume."
Nadler pointed out that Jordan's hearing had "nothing to do with antitrust laws, since the majority's allegations wither under even the most basic antitrust analysis."
"This is instead another dangerous effort by the majority to bully companies into promoting and supporting far-right extremist views, views that brands understandably do not want to be associated with," Nadler explained. "In this case, the majority seeks to undermine companies' First Amendment rights and to make it harder for them to avoid monetizing online and offline harm through advertising."
The Democratic lawmaker noted that advertisers wanted to avoid "funding of terrorist organizations, the promotion and distribution of foreign propaganda materials, and the promotion and distribution of racist, hateful, and discriminatory content."
Nadler pointed out that Republicans wanted to force advertisers to run ads on "platforms like Twitter, now known as X, Truth Social, Breitbart, and The Daily Wire, even though those sites are rife with adult content, hate speech, false information, misinformation, and racist and violent propaganda."
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The congressman told Jordan that The Daily Wire, run by Republican witness Ben Shapiro, had generated $220 million in revenue last year.
"His website has over 15 million followers across his main social media handles, including on sites that are members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, known as GARM, the target of today's hearing," Nadler said. "This hardly sounds like the victim of a conspiracy to suppress content."
"Under the direction of the chair, the committee is abusing its oversight authority," he added. "The Republicans are so committed to the belief that conservative content, in quotes, is being censored, despite all evidence to the contrary, that they will do anything to undermine the efforts of platforms to moderate their own content, which the Supreme Court recently affirmed is an exercise of their First Amendment rights."
