Was Washington Post endorsement ban a quid pro quo? Does Bezos / Musk owning top media & being govt contractors create a HUGE confilict of interest?

[DrPepper12]

Bezos is NOT a newspaper guy — he’s a businessman. To him, the Washington Post is just a line-item on a spreadsheet. More importantly, Bezos is also a government contractor. He’s the founder of Blue Origin, the aerospace company behind those dick-shaped rockets.

Now, Bozo's no dummy, he saw the Space Nazi skippin’ like a dipshit & giving hundreds of millions to Donny, & a dim light bulb went off over his head. "Oh shit, this is going to affect my bottom line". So he phones up the Washington Post & tells them that’s it, there will be no endorsement of Kamala Harris. Sure enough, 20 minutes after the announcement was made, this happened:

"Ex POTUS Trump met with leaders from the Jeff Bezos-owned aerospace company Blue Origin following his speech in Austin, Texas.

The Republican had a short meeting with the aerospace company CEO David Limp & VP of government relations Megan Mitchell, according to The Associated Press."

Editor Robert Kagan, who quit his WaPo after the news broke that the WaPo wouldn’t be endorsing Kamala:

“Trump waited to make sure that Bezos did what he said he was going to do, & then met with the Blue Origin people, which tells us that there was an actual deal made, that Bezos communicated with Trump, & they set up this quid pro quo.”

Bezos’s non-endorsement of Kamala Harris is actually a ringing endorsement of fascism. Capitulating in advance to a bully because you’re afraid of something that might happen is literally how appeasement & fascism works. Bezos knows that Donny will blow a fucking gasket and seek retribution if the Post backs his opponent.

Sorry to be the one to tell you this Jeff, but no fucking way, bro. There is no placating someone who is a bottomless well of need & greed. Has giving your lunch money to the playground bully ever been the end of it? Of course not. You’ve proven yourself an easy mark, & he’s definitely coming back for more.

This was the WaPo in 2018:

Divest. Govt contractors CANNOT have media empires too!

Billionaires can own X, WaPo & more media if they want. That's capitalism.

Best thing Feds should do nothing.

More than divesting conflicting assets, overturn Citizens United

Other - I'll explain

[Lliam]

A political endorsement from WaPo would encourage me to vote the opposite, not that I would ever read that CIA propaganda mouthpiece.

I know latte-liberals with higher education degrees who think that means they are smart. But the fact that they think reading the WaPo and NYT makes them informed actually means that they are the opposite. They let others tell them what to think instead of thinking for themselves. They are programmed.

Considering how utterly corrupt Democrats are, it's funny that they are throwing a fit over this and implying that Trump influenced the decision. And so what if he did. The Harris campaign is paying airhead social media "influencers" between $15,000 and $500,000 to promote Harris.

And the fact that Democrats have resorted in desperation to calling Trump a Nazi and a fascist makes me want him to win just so I can watch their heads explode.

Democrats have divided this country far more than ever before in history. I hope they get what's coming to them.

[DrPepper12]

Why does reading WaPo or NYT not make them informed and "programmed"?

[Lliam]

Because they are being told what to think instead of being given complete information with which to formulate their own opinions.
Articles omit facts and are full of spin and bias.

People don't know what they don't know. So if information is withheld and only one side of the story is told, people are being propagandized.

And any information that doesn't conform with the desired, social engineering narrative is branded "fake news" or "conspiracy theory". That is a CIA tactic.

[blueonblack22]

Admittedly I was very surprised to hear this.

But why would any conservative voter ever trust the Washington Post’s political coverage when they openly endorse a democrat candidates? At least you can say they were open about their biases. CNN still claims they are nonpartisan which is absolutely insane.

However they really are limiting readership to an isolated segment of Americans when they openly endorse a specific political candidate. What’s wrong with having more countervailing POVs?

[Anonymous]

Well they shouldn't be endorsing any candidate at all nor should any newspaper or news media outlet.

I would guess Bezos believes Trump is going to win so naturally doesn't want to upset him as he has Amazon to worry about about and billions in blue origin government contracts.

But if you think it's OK for a newspaper like the Washington Post to endorse a Candidate like Kamala Harris in the first place then surely you believe its acceptable for the owner of he Washington Post not to endorse any candidate.

[katiesmuff]

I guess they should be allowed to own media companies, however if we don't like the operation or the way they present their product we don't have to use it and if millions don't listen it would fail and go away anyway. It's only our own stupidity that lets these filthy rich bastards succeed by supporting the businesses they operate.

[Ez-Bri-Z_v2]

I heard that WaPo lost 200k subscribers after this news broke which is insane losses for a newspaper to experience.

Maybe Bezos is scared of retribution, but that's part of standing up to fascists leaders. We need lots of voices to stand up to them, not the elite bowing down to him. It demoralizes people.

[exitseven]

I am surprised that their circulation was that big to begin with. I would not wipe my butt with oit.

[DrPepper12]

@exitseven despite your toileting issues WaPo is a paper of record recognized globally for the quality of their journalism. What source would you suggest?

[exitseven]

@DrPepper12 It may have been like that in the 70s but it has devolved into just another leftist rag. Ben Bradlee must be turning over in his grave.

[seeyounexttuesday]

Yay, you said Nazi! That's today leftist word of the day (well every day). Do you guys ever get tired of being histrionic propagandists? Is there ever a point where you have a molecule of self awareness at how retarded you sound?

Is it because you have a complete lack of understanding of reality? It's Biden/kaMALA/democrats who coerced social media stories to ban news that was critical of them. They also have a very strong pattern of jailing their political opponents. So it'd be in Bezos' best interest to endorse them to keep their eye off him.

[Tamera952]

Well if the shoe fits…. Sorry if you don’t like that comparison, but there are too many similarities and coincidences to ignore.
But your assertion that there is (was) a concerted efforts to “ban news that was critical of them” is baseless, & a stretch. And, then you fully go off the rails with the notion that there’s “a very strong pattern of jailing their political opponents” — that’s just pure bullshit. I’d say, oh yea? Like who?

[seeyounexttuesday]

@Tamera952 congress literally sent out a report today that social media companies were pressured to remove the hunter laptop story and called it “Russian propaganda” when they knew it was legit.

Take your bullshit somewhere else

[exitseven]

Bezos recognizes the probability of a second Trump presidency and does not want to alienate him. It would be too blatant if he came right out and endorsed himbut he hopes that by not endorsing Harris will be good enough

[Makeushiver]

I agree with you. The married women with whom I've shared a bed have been like tigress. In almost every case the reason they strayed is because they haven't felt sexy in a long time. Their husbands have stopped really being exciting and I've been told that it's almost always being ignored and they want someone who passionately is attracted to them. Many of them are fantastic lovers

[Dongie]

Yeah, they can and have owned it.

The rocket was a tribute to Austin Powers.

And Trump is the greatest threat to leftist idiolgy.

America, in order to be healed has to get a noose around many leftist players that have done what they wanted without regard for what America was even founded on.

[Tamera952]

It’s a bad look for Bezos, for sure. Think he should have stayed out of it.

[Juxtapose]

Geez you are making yourself look so bad. Saying that not voting for Kamala Harris is endorsing fascism is so fucking stupid, do better. This is an embarrassment to yourself.

[DrPepper12]

I never said fascism.

[Likes2drive]

It’s all capitalism. I would think billionaires can do whatever they want.