Three high-ranking GOP congressmen sent a letter Thursday to Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred Jr. requesting documentation about its decision to weigh in on Georgia’s election-integrity law.
Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, James Comer of Kentucky and Jody Hice of Georgia co-signed the letter, warning that MLB might have subjected itself to antitrust scrutiny by wading into political waters.
“Because MLB enjoys special and unique antitrust immunities that have allowed it to become America’s only nationwide professional baseball league, MLB’s actions amount to attempted economic extortion that has harmed small businesses in and around Atlanta,” they wrote.
The congressmen outlined several of the oft-repeated criticisms that election-integrity supporters have leveled against the virtue-signaling corporate entities for attempting to exert pressure on Georgia lawmakers.
Among the arguments:
- MLB’s condemnation of the Georgia law “was based on inaccurate and politicized information.”
- MLB’s decision to limit criticism to Georgia ignored the fact that other states—including Colorado (where the All-Star Game relocated) and New York (where MLB is headquartered) “have more restrictive election laws.”
- The criticism was “unabashedly hypocritical” given MLB’s recent partnerships with the suppressive communist regimes in China and Cuba.
- The decision would be harmful to Atlanta’s local economy and would severely impact black workers and black-owned businesses.
“By relocating the 2021 All–Star Game—and the corresponding economic activity—away from Atlanta as punishment for Georgia’s election integrity legislation, MLB is inappropriately leveraging its monopolistic power to impose its will on the citizens of Georgia,” the congressmen wrote.
“MLB’s actions necessitate an evaluation of whether MLB’s special and unique antitrust exemption continues to benefit the American people,” they said.
Jordan and Comer are the ranking minority members of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, respectively.
But even though the margins in both the House and Senate are razor-thin, Republicans currently wield little actual power, other than their stern letter-writing ability.
And Democrats have proceeded with break-neck speed to push through a radical agenda on every front while embarking on an unprecedented power-grab to secure their own permanent majorities if successful.
Thus far, efforts to push back against the tidal wave of corporate wokeness and cancel-culture have been mixed.
For example, calls by GOP leaders including former president Donald Trump to boycott Coca-Cola and other companies that denounced the Georgia law may have led some to soften their tone slightly.
Reports indicate that a third of Americans are now rejecting the soft-drink giant.
But that leaves little in the way of alternatives for those boycotting.
Democrat North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (in whose state Pepsi is headquartered) is now leading the effort to pressure companies in his and other blue states to denounce Georgia’s law.
And despite its hit in the American market, Coke’s first-quarter earnings report signaled growth in its global markets—notably China.
On another front, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., recently took on the issue of Big Tech‘s anti-conservative censorship in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 uprising at the US Capitol.
Their letter-writing campaign appeared to have successfully pressured Apple into accepting the conservative-friendly app Parler back into its app store, under the condition that it agreed to have its content filtered by an Apple-approved algorithm.
Some, including the head of rival social-media app Gab, were skeptical.
“Conceding to the Enemy’s demands in order to participate in the Enemy’s app stores is not a win for conservatives or the right in general,” wrote Gab CEO Andrew Torba in a statement following Parler’s announcement.
“It’s a PR win for Apple, who hopes to get Republicans in Congress off their back,” Torba said.
Buck, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, also led a recent effort to renounce campaign funding from several Big Tech companies due to their monopolistic practices.
But that, too, seems to do more harm to the conservative effort than to the companies, and is largely symbolic.
That followed a recent announcement by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that he was pursuing legislation to “bust up” tech companies that engage in anti-competitive business practices.
“Woke Big Tech companies like Google and Amazon have been coddled by Washington politicians for years,” Hawley said , according to Fox News.
“This treatment has allowed them to amass colossal amounts of power that they use to censor political opinions that they don’t agree with and shut out competitors who offer consumers an alternative to the status quo,” he said.
Hawley could stand a better chance of succeeding if he’s able to woo any Democrats to support his bill.
In recent congressional hearings, Google’s and Amazon’s monopolistic, anti-competitive practices have been flagged by some on the Left as serious concerns. However, there is likely to be little interest from Hawley’s colleagues across the aisle in taking up the issue of Big Tech’s political censorship, which disproportionately targets conservatives.
