When your business is in danger of sinking, any lifeline looks like a good one—especially when a billionaire is on the other end of the line.
That was the initial reaction of advocates for our legacy news media when Amazon titan Jeff Bezos and biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought, respectively, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
The Post and Times were ranked among the best newspapers in the country for many years, but the rise of the internet—and its ability to suck-up advertising that previously appeared in newspapers—and clueless management put both papers on the verge of extinction.
To the rescue came Bezos and Soon-Shiong, two visionaries with deep pockets who could revitalize the failing industry. People were especially enamored of Bezos, a guy who harnessed the power of the internet to become fabulously wealthy. Maybe he could do the same for one of America’s great newspapers.
Alas, it didn’t occur to these wishful thinkers that Bezos and Soon-Shiong have business interests that are far more valuable than either of the newspapers, and that those interests can be endangered by a vengeful and spiteful president who despises the news media.
The fear of Trump first became evident last fall when Bezos and Soon-Shiong killed their papers’ endorsement of Kamala Harris for president. Each framed the decision as an effort to remove the perception of bias from the papers, and each promised to provide more balanced coverage in the future.
Soon-Shiong went a step further, announcing he would harness AI technology to create a feature called “Insights,” a button next to all opinion pieces that would generate opposing perspectives for readers.
“Somebody could understand as they read it that the source of the story has some level of bias,” said Soon-Shiong. “The reader can press a button and see both sides of that exact same story automatically.”
The technology got off to a rocky start recently when a column urging the city of Anaheim to face up to its past embrace of the Ku Klux Klan generated an Insights response that called the far-right group a “white Protestant culture responding to societal changes rather than an explicitly hate-driven movement.”
Bezos recently announced the Post’s opinion pages would now be dedicated to supporting “personal liberties and free markets,” and that it would not publish opposing views.
“We’ll cover other topics too of course,” Bezos said in an email to Post staffers. “But viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.” Not even The Wall Street Journal, which welcomed the Post to the club in an editorial, goes that far.
While Bezos’ decision was praised by DOGE boy Elon Musk and others on the right, the Post’s staff was less enamored. The editorial page editor quit, followed shortly by a prominent column after a piece criticizing Bezos was spiked. In January, a cartoonist quit after a piece showing Bezos bowing down to Trump was killed.
This is a significant departure for Bezos, who has not interfered with the editorial operation since he bought the paper in 2013 for a reported $250 million. Some suspect the fear of Trump has driven him to these decisions.
Trump has long despised the Post for its criticism of Trump 1.0—it’s obvious he can dish it out but he can’t take it—and it has become obvious since the advent of Trump 2.0 that he is going to settle scores.
A story surfaced recently that Trump was so annoyed with the Post during his first administration that he pushed postal officials to double the rates charged for Amazon parcels.
Since regaining office in January, Trump has made it clear by his actions that the media is going to face a lot more hostility from the White House than it has in the past, even dictating what they write.
Associated Press, the leading distributor of news in the country, has been banned from the White House press pool because it refuses to use the term “Gulf of America,” and Trump’s minions have made it clear they will decide who gets access to Trump in the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room, Air Force One, and other small settings.
That access has traditionally been determined by the White House Correspondents Association, which uses a rotation system to guarantee access to reporters and photographers from print, news wires, radio and television outlets.
Trump’s lawyers have gone after ABC and CBS, and have threatened other media outlets. The Federal Communications Commission, now headed by the Musk ally Brendan Carr, is examining the DEI policies and political slant of PBS and NPR stations that operate under federal license.
Retribution is in the air. “We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” promised Kash Patel, now head of the FBI. “Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.”
Bezos has been busy shoring up his defenses. (It should be noted at this point that Amazon is getting ready to battle two suits brought by the Federal Trade Commission.)
He congratulated Trump on his election victory, had dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and contributed $1 million to the inauguration fund. That got him an invitation to the inauguration, where he was grouped with all of the other high tech billionaires who wrote a check.
Then there is the matter of a proposed three-part biography of Melania Trump, which has been making the rounds at the various streaming services. Melania will star, and be the executive producer. She will also get most of the money.
Apple and Netflix passed on the proposal, and Disney, which forked over $20 million to settle Trump’s suit against ABC, bid $14 million for the project. Prime, Amazon’s streaming service that is well known for squeezing every buck, bid $40 million to get the project.
I suspect Bezos views this commitment as an insurance policy for his Amazon interests. As for newspapers: Bezos and Soon-Shiong would probably sell them if they could get a decent price. It appears the people who have the most to lose are the most vulnerable to pressure.
George Boardman lives in Nevada City. His column is published biweekly on Tuesdays by The Union. Write him at: ag101board@yahoo.com
