Showing posts with label Jeff Bezos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeff Bezos. Show all posts

January 21, 2025

My Washington Post subscription cancellation just got a temporary reprieve. It's still on probation. By Hal M. Brown

 


There he was. Jeff Bezos, the owner of both Amazon and The Washington Post, along with Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and the less familiar owner of Google, Sundar Pichai, in Billionaires Row at the inauguration. 

If he only owned Amazon, all things considered with Trump's affection for oligarchs, it would make sense for him to be there. However, my outrage is that he owns one of the two most important and influential newspapers in the country. He's the one who spiked the editorial board's endorsement of Kamala Harris and a cartoon by Ann Telnais which was highly critical of him and these Trump butt kissing oligarchs. 

The owner of a newspaper, any newspaper, does not belong as a guest at the inauguration of a president. 

Rupert Murdoch was there, but -- well -- of course he was there. Jeff Bezos does not own a propaganda rag. I wonder if they talked to each other. If they did I'd like to see a photo.

I still have my subscription to The Washington Post. I have been vacillating on whether or not to keep it. I'd like to send my own infintensibly small message. However, I still find that it has opinion columnists who I admire, for example Alexandra Petre, Eugene Robinson, Phillip Bump, Catherine Rampell, Karen Tumely, Jonathan Capehard, and Ruth Marcus.

 (I have subscribed to Jennifer Rubin, who resigned in protest, and Norm Eisen's Substack "The Contratian.") They have put together a group of lesser known excellent opinion writers. I can only read so much so I can see a time when I do cancel my subscription.

This is what The Washington Post website looked like this morning:

Scrolling down to look at the opinion section this Editorial Board opinion is what I was eager to read. I was surprised that it wasn't on top of the opinion section. A column about Trump's crypto coin scheme is hardly more important than the opinion of the editorial board.

You can click above to enlarge the image.

I thought "okay, Bezos and Post, this is your last chance with me." I wanted to see if this was an exercise in Trump ass-kissing. It wasn't. Quite the opposite, it was an objective critical analysis. If you are one of who I expect are the few subscribers reading this you can read it here.

Some of the piece was straight reporting describing what Trump said. Below is the excerpt which was critical of Trump.

Trump on Monday also planned to sign a dizzying array of troubling executive orders. His administration will seek to end birthright citizenship in an attempt to empower his government to deport people living illegally in the United States who have citizen children, an affront to the 14th Amendment. He declared an emergency at the southern border to authorize sending troops there, and he will reinstate the “remain in Mexico” policy from his first administration, which forced asylum seekers to wait in squalid and dangerous tent cities south of the U.S. border as their claims were processed. Together, these policies threaten to do great harm, not only to migrants and their families but also to the American economy.

For the second time, Trump plans to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, again making it one of the only countries in the world not party to the global commitment to reduce carbon emissions. He also positioned himself in favor of loosening barriers to carbon-emitting projects, promising to “drill, baby, drill.” At the same time, he made clear his active opposition to clean energy. He was expected to pause all offshore wind leases, a step that might portend a broader ban, which would stop the United States from competing in this burgeoning industry.

It pays to remember that there is a limit to what any president can accomplish immediately. Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, for instance, will face strong court challenges, because the concept is written into the Constitution. His “remain in Mexico” policy can work only with cooperation from Mexico. And though Trump might no longer be subject to the moderating pressure that comes from wanting to be reelected, he is not immune to political reality. His legacy and his party’s future electoral success will depend not only on what he can manage to get done in the next four years — but also on how popular those accomplishments will be.

If you look at the illustration on the top of this page you will see this in the lower corner:

I wouldn't have seen this because it was in the Letters to the Editor section and it was nowhere on the main website page. 
All of the letters, with the exception of the last one, were highly critical of Trump. This is what that one said:

Weather forecast: scattered storms, mostly sunny for the next four years.

Tom CutrofelloWoodside, New York


Some of the letters were long. Here's a shorter one which was critical of Trump:

If voters had been taking Donald Trump seriously all along, they would not be surprised by how he hit his targets with absolute precision in both speeches Monday. Either folks have been in denial that he is the authoritarian he said he would be on Day 1, or they are okay with it. Either way, it’s a poor outcome for the United States, and for our democratic republic. Mary KollerGrand Haven Michigan

I found them because of the message on my computer screen. If I didn't get this I doubt I would have found them since they aren't anywhere on the main page. If you can find them click here and let me know where they are.

Today my subscription to The Washington Post is on probation. It still has many opinion columnists I like to read, for example Alexandra Petri, Eugene Robinson, Phillip Bump, Catherine Rampell, Karen Tumelty, Jonathan Capehard, and Ruth Marcus. If Bezo tries to make the paper into "The Trump Tribune" I expect more of their writers will quit and then I'll be cancelling my subscription. I'll keep my NY Times subscription and perhaps use the savings to subscribe to The Atlantic, Forbes, or Rolling Stone.


I post my Substacks (formerly blogs) on several platforms.  They are on Substack where, if you want to submit your email, you can be notified of all new blog posts. They are on HalBrown.org. They are also on Stressline.org  I also post them on Medium because this enables them to be easily found on internet searches.



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