[HN Gopher] Is Jeff Bezos killing The Washington Post on purpose...
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Is Jeff Bezos killing The Washington Post on purpose or by
accident?
Author : dotcoma
Score : 34 points
Date : 2025-07-27 19:27 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.thebulwark.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.thebulwark.com)
| VivaTechnics wrote:
| By accident
| bediger4000 wrote:
| Agreed. He seems to think that people want to pay to be
| lectured about "personal freedom and liberty", and should take
| election advice from him, an oligarch.
| vFunct wrote:
| Yep. He has no idea what he's doing in media, or much else
| really (outside of AWS)
| dotcoma wrote:
| Here is the link. Sorry for the mess.
|
| https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-washington-post-is-dying-je...
| PaulHoule wrote:
| The "why" is pretty obvious. Bezos is intimidated by Trump. Under
| Trump 1 he changed the paper's masthead to "Democracy Dies in
| Darkness", like out of Batman.
|
| If you look at Russia, you see being an oligarch is particularly
| dangerous in an authoritarian society. You fall out of a window.
| You can't get permits for anything, your contracts get canceled.
| Some average rando can be part of the #resistance and not face
| consequences because nobody cares but if you are that visible
| you're vulnerable.
| scoreandmore wrote:
| Yes.
| jeroenvlek wrote:
| Exactly.
| skybrian wrote:
| I don't read the opinion section because you can get opinions
| anywhere and there are better blogs on Substack. The news
| reporting in the Washington Post seems as good as ever, as far as
| I can tell.
| cyanydeez wrote:
| The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
|
| To your context, it simply means you havent seen bias in the
| facts, but dont evaluate the completeness thereof.
| kelseyfrog wrote:
| Purchasing The Washington Post is a Day-Two move. Destined to
| lose.
| Animats wrote:
| The second Opinion unit, for outside submissions, is the Amazon
| reseller concept applied to news. It's why you can't buy anything
| important on Amazon any more.
|
| There are very few American newspapers left that have actual
| reporters in the field. The New York Times and the Washington
| Post are almost the only ones left. The result is that most
| stories begin from some press release. Look at the Washington
| Post right now.
|
| - "Trump, European Union reach trade deal with 15% tariffs" -
| from a press release.
|
| - "Israel to let more aid trucks into Gaza, under pressure over
| hunger crisis Israel said..." - press release
|
| - "Denied federal flood relief, a Maryland town is left on its
| own" - actual reporter coverage of regional news.
|
| - "Trump's imaginary numbers, from $1.99 gas to 1,500 percent
| price cuts" - desk work, rehash of existing info.
|
| For most other newspapers, it's even worse. Few if any boots on
| the ground.
|
| _" News is what someone doesn't want published. All else is
| publicity"_
| sweeter wrote:
| All of these institutions are cooked.
| skybrian wrote:
| One difference between actual journalists and people who just
| post their opinions on the Internet is that journalists will
| _make phone calls._ Even when they don't talk to people in
| person, that's still valuable.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| Bari Weiss and Paul Krugman wouldn't agree on almost anything
| but they agree it's a better life to be writing for Substack
| than for the NYT.
|
| I enjoy reading Krugman so much now because he seems to be
| having so much fun now that he doesn't have the weight of the
| _New York Times_ editors on him.
| dimal wrote:
| Weird that it doesn't mention Trump. He and Bezos were at odds
| until Bezos gave him $1M for the inauguration and decided to
| neuter the Post's opinion section. Then all threats of antitrust
| against Amazon magically went away. Bezos probably had to trash
| the Post to save Amazon. The loss is a drop in the bucket to him.
| dotcoma wrote:
| Agree. But even completely losing Amazon -- which would have
| never happened anyway -- would have been a drop in the bucket
| at this point.
|
| Funny how you grow to become the richest or second-richest man
| on the world, only to kiss ass to a bully.
| diddid wrote:
| Rich people have been paying off politicians forever, Trump
| isn't the first, and he won't be the last. Back the winner
| until the winner is the loser, then back the new winner,
| repeat. AKA the king is dead long live the king!
| dotcoma wrote:
| True, but what is surprising to me is that not even Bezos'
| kind of wealth will get him off the hook.
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(page generated 2025-07-27 23:01 UTC)