For most of his tenure, Bezos reportedly let editors run the paper without interference. But then, apparently spurred by changes in the political winds, he became heavy-handed. In fall 2024, with Trump’s potential return to the White House looming, Bezos himself quashed the paper’s editorial endorsing then-Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Then, a cartoonist resigned after she said her depiction of Bezos — and other billionaires — kneeling before Trump was rejected. And the paper gutted its opinion section to become more friendly to the right and to silence progressive dissent. None of the changes can be explained by Bezos’ concerns about fiscal health; covering the Post’s losses are an infinitesimal fraction of his wealth. The changes reflect his personal priorities.
We are in an acutely dangerous place when huge swaths of the media ecosystem are owned by untouchably rich people.
Bezos’ gutting of the Post comes as biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong is pushing the Los Angeles Times to the right, and the billionaire Ellison family is transforming CBS News into a MAGA-friendly news operation. This is to say nothing of the social media sector, where mega-billionaire Elon Musk wrecked Twitter, Meta’s weather vane billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg alters algorithms depending on who controls the government and TikTok is now partially in the hands of billionaire Trump allies.
We are in an acutely dangerous place when huge swaths of the media ecosystem are owned by untouchably rich people. Their primary interest is in enriching themselves using their highly profitable assets, and they possess no obligation to protect democratic norms if it doesn’t strike their fancy. Most of them are decidedly not in the mood these days: During this authoritarian turn, the capitalist class has found that muzzling politico-intellectual freedom is a way to curry favor with the president and protect their bottom line.
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