Several newspapers and online news outlets will begin lobbying Congress this week for a limited antitrust exemption to employ collective bargaining with Google and Facebook on the use of news content, the New York Times reported Sunday.

The effort will be coordinated by the News Media Alliance, an association representing newspapers and online media providers. Media organizations have increasingly come to rely on Google and Facebook to distribute content but believe they are getting a raw deal in terms of revenue share for their stories, according to the Times.

"If you want a free news model, you will get news," News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern told the newspaper. "But it will be garbage news—it will be ‘Pope Endorses Trump.'" (The cited article was fake news story circulated online during the presidential election.)

Congress must pass legislation allowing the media companies collective bargaining with the two internet giants if the companies want to avoid violating antitrust law. However, lawmakers have rarely granted such an exemption and the controlling party—Republicans—are not on friendly terms with the news media.

In the meantime, Facebook executives will meet with newspaper publishers this week to propose new ways to sell subscriptions online. Google has made similar efforts in the past. http://nyti.ms/2sEsthZ

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