Media giant News Corp. has hired a new lobbyist to aid its ongoing fight against the country’s largest technology companies.
(Bloomberg) — Media giant News Corp. has hired a new lobbyist to aid its ongoing fight against the country’s largest technology companies.
Rachel Bissex, a former senior aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has garnered a reputation for opposing Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. on Capitol Hill. She’s now News Corp.’s vice president of federal government affairs, the company said on Wednesday night.
Bissex previously worked for Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and Colorado Republication Representative Ken Buck — two of the Republican party’s most fervent critics of the big tech companies.
The move comes as News Corp. and a handful of smaller tech companies gear up for a potential Republican takeover of the House or Senate. News Corp. and Fox Corp., which are both owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, have stepped up their lobbying push to regulate the tech giants. They’ve targeted Republicans with the message that the companies have accumulated too much power and control over the digital ecosystem.
News Corp., which owns Dow Jones & Co. and other major media organizations, claims that the tech companies don’t adequately compensate publishers for links to articles and news segments. Murdoch has specifically called out the internet giants for allegedly censoring conservatives online, a common GOP talking point.
The Bissex hire is part of a broader shakeup of News Corp.’s lobbying operation after longtime global head of government affairs, Toni Bush, retired earlier this year. Bush was replaced by her colleague Todd Thorpe, who now heads the office.
Meanwhile, the major tech companies have hired up a slew of Capitol Hill aides. Amazon in August hired Judd Smith, formerly a senior aide to Republican Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, to bolster its efforts to stymie a highly-anticipated antitrust bill aimed at US internet giants. Apple earlier hired a key aide to Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who has led her party’s push against the tech platforms.
(Updates with company confirmation, in second paragraph.)
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