WAPO Crumples; A.P. Shows Its Grit

Donald Wants The Media To Bend To His Will; But Journalists Have Fire Coursing Through Their Veins

Katharine Graham is spinning in her grave. We see her ghostly spirit jauntily hunting to find and commiserate with Thomas Jefferson’s eternal soul somewhere in our make-believe version of heaven, craving once again to rest her ears on his wise words: “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."

Jeff Bezos, who inherited Graham’s august legacy thanks to his fortunes, this week leveled the latest affront against a free and independent press when he declared The Washington Post’s opinion section would now advocate “personal liberties and free markets” and refrain from publishing opposing viewpoints on those topics.

The Amazonian King Bezos, borrowing a page from the Orwellian novel that he bought on Amazon, inverts and perverts the concept of freedom with the cockamamie explanation for his decision on X: “I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical – it minimizes coercion -- and practical; it drives creativity, invention and property.”

Pass the Ketamine.

What an embarrassing load of tripe. Fodder for late night comedy, if it wasn’t a deadly seriously assault on the freedom of the press. And coming from the Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler of the stalwart institution that gave us Woodward & Bernstein. Sounds like it was written by a PR hack who was told to put a statement together that is part Donald, part Musk, part America-First Under-Educated White Guy who flies the flag, trades in conspiracy theories, and has never, ever read The Washington Post. Alternatively, if this is how Bezos writes, maybe he should not be the public face of a major newspaper.

The problem is that Bezos – another billionaire who consolidated his wealth by giving Americans one store in which to buy everything – has joined the cadre of other tech billionaires who have decided America is their club. In their Raccoon Lodge, we live by their rules, their privileges, and their utter disregard for the First Amendment, or whatever stands in their way of maintaining power and control. And let’s not be cavalier -- they are controlling America’s most important asset: the narrative, the news, the bully pulpit that cements the bricks of America’s democracy.

While Bezos incoherently (scarily emulating Donald’s limited 162-word vocabulary and slogan-studded speech), tries to justify his right-wing swing with jingoistic jargon, he’s fooling no one. Blistering on about “freedom” (a favorite dog whistle for the right) is uber ironic and now part of the Bezos brand. Makes me think about Whole Foods, which Bezos purchased for $13.7 billion in 2017. Remember when the aisles were filled with lots and lots of brands, and you thought you were supporting local vendors and growers. Have you strolled these aisles lately? The shelves are increasingly stuffed with private-label Whole Foods brands; one day that’s all there will be in Whole Foods. Maybe Bezos should rename WAPO “Whole Posts,” while he’s in the branding way. Like his tech buds, he knows where his white bread is buttered:

In October, he chucked the newspaper’s longstanding tradition of endorsing presidential candidates because obviously the sane editorial writers at WAPO would have endorsed Kamala Harris. He followed that act by quashing Ann Telnaes’ political cartoon showing billionaires genuflecting to then President-elect Donald. She quit, so have other high-profile writers. The newspaper has lost lots of subscribers.

Big deal. It's all about consolidation of power. A numbers game. A calculation of where the goodie bags are, and now, they are at the Cartoon King’s palace in Mar-a-Bloggo.

Bezos, and Musk, whose Tesla business is swirling down the golden toilet, can afford to shed assets and loyal customers because that’s a better sacrifice than risk losing membership in the billionaire boys’ club whose prey is power. It’s not as if the tone-deaf, emotionally devoid, alien-like cyber princes did not once bend to a different set of political winds. They green-washed, promoted DEI, enjoyed the ride while it lasted, messaged accordingly. Hell Musk tossed Donald from Twitter and became synonymous with the electric car movement.

Donald knows he must corral the powerbrokers. He’s working his deft dealmaking on dictators and free-world leaders alike. He’s horse-trading immigrants with threats over seizing the Panama Canal, commandeering precious minerals from Ukraine in exchange for some vague promise of ensuring that nation’s endurance, and believing that Canada will beef up border security to avoid tariffs. These are temporal arrangements that will ultimately wither and die.

But his assault on the free press could last for generations.

The astonishing domino capitulation of CBS, ABC, META and others, has delivered a decisive blow to the integrity of the media, challenging reporters to do their jobs. But billionaires and corporate boards have determined it’s more expedient to settle meritless lawsuits with the grifting King and his bent administration, than fight for the principles their organizations were founded upon. Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Daniel Pearl, Ida Tarbell – also spinning in the eternal hereafter too.

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, writing in the New York Times about these settlements, said: "They create precedents — not legal ones, but precedents nonetheless — that will shape the way that judges and the public think about press freedom and its limits. They also damage the media institutions' prestige and credibility."

For now, all eyes are on the Associate Press – and its brave stance against tyranny, as well as Gannett’s Des Moine Register and the committee that awards Pulitzer Prizes. Donald wants as many trophies as he can rack up.

We are all rooting for the A.P. to stand its ground and continuing calling the Gulf of Mexico by its 400-year-old name. In retaliation for swimming in the Gulf of Reality, the A.P. was barred from the Ovaltine office and from Hot Air Force One.

“We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,” King Donald declared, waving a scepter, I mean, microphone.

This is the gauntlet. The A.P. lost its first round in court when a Donald-appointed federal district judge declined to issue a restraining order that would have prevented the Spite House from excluding their journalists. But it must keep fighting because what’s the point of gaining access to the inner sanctum of Donald’s office and plane if what goes on inside is mere propaganda. In a more perfect world, the press corps would band together and recognize its collective power. The last thing in the world Donald wants is to lose the attention of the “legacy” or what he likes to call “lame-stream” media. He’d be heartbroken if Right-Wing media nuts were the only ones lapping in his press pool. If reporters and news outlets planned a wholesale boycott of Donald’s daily drivels, he’d back down, like he always does when he meets with a formidable foe.

Opinion Editor David Shipley’s departure from WAPO this week was a sign of encouragement. He’s left a weakened publication, making a statement that reverberates with journalists everywhere. What Donald hasn’t calculated – because he’s not a smart strategist no matter what people might think – is that journalists have a certain fire coursing through their veins. If mainstream media wants to roll over and play dead, we will mutate into other forms that grow and take on lives of our own because there are enough people out there who seek the truth (ask the hundreds of hyper local media organizations that have sprung up in the last decade). We are long past the days when only three network channels or a handful of newspapers are seen as the bastion of reliable news. Donald’s fishing for the big whales but there’s no way he can trawl the brave guppies out there who are growing their profiles through all kinds of media platforms.