Go Jeff Yourself
In the NYT (Gift Article), Peter Baker, who reported from Moscow early in Putin’s reign, explains that In Trump’s Washington, a Moscow-Like Chill Takes Hold. “A new administration’s efforts to pressure the news media, punish political opponents and tame the nation’s tycoons evoke the early days of President Vladimir V. Putin’s reign in Russia.” Just yesterday, Reuters and Associated Press were barred from Trump’s first cabinet meeting. It doesn’t help that many of those who own media’s most notable brands are siding not with their reporters, but with the administration. The latest example is Jeff Bezos’ Trump-friendly re-imagining of the Washington Post opinion section. By way of Margaret Sullivan, former media columnist for WaPo, former executive editor Marty Baron has some thoughts on what amounts to a big shift in Bezos stewardship of the publication. “What Bezos is doing today runs counter to what he said, and actually practiced, during my tenure at the Post. I have always been grateful for how he stood up for the Post and an independent press against Trump’s constant threats to his business interest. Now, I couldn’t be more sad and disgusted.” The Post’s tagline is Democracy Dies in Darkness. Maybe it should be replaced by the Simon and Garfunkel line, Hello Darkness, My Old Friend.
+ More from Baron: “Bezos himself has done personal liberties a disservice by cravenly yielding to a president who shows no respect for liberty — one who aims to use the power of government to bully, threaten, punish and crush anyone who is not in his camp, especially the press. There is no doubt in my mind that he is doing this out of fear of the consequences for his other business interests, Amazon (the source of his wealth) and Blue Origin (which represents his lifelong passion for space exploration). He has prioritized those commercial interests over The Post, and he is betraying The Post’s longstanding principles to do so.”
+ One can argue that the impact of mainstream news, especially opinion pieces, has been completely overshadowed by whatever is spreading on social media. But those platforms are also owned by super billionaires who have moved into the Trump camp. And even though I’m a news junkie who spends half his day sharing stories from mainstream news sites, I’m under no illusions about how this journalistic betrayal will impact Bezos. A day after he announced the editorial changes, news that Gayle King, Katy Perry, and Lauren Sánchez will lead a Blue Origin all-women crewed mission is already getting much more media attention. For now, the Post’s news coverage remains intact and they’ve long provided some of the best and most accurate coverage of Trump. But in the age of greased palms, the slope has never been more slippery.
