Article in The Guardian by Emily Bell, 12/13/24
Headline: “Can billionaire media moguls be trusted in Trump’s America?”
Subhead: “The new gatekeepers use ‘trust’ to discredit the press and talk about removing bias with AI – distracting us from their own shift to the right”
“If we want to know what news organisations will look like under the second Trump administration in America, well, we are beginning to get an idea. At the Dealbook conference in New York last week, Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post and multi-billionaire founder of Amazon, gave a very favourable assessment of Donald Trump’s upcoming second term. “I am very hopeful … he seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation,” beamed Bezos. It was surprising, then, that the Washington Post did not endorse Trump in its pre-election editorial. Instead the writers crafted an endorsement of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris which Bezos killed, in his first act of blatant editorial interference since he bought the title in 2013.”
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Article in Daily Kos by Alex Samuela, 12/13/24
Headline: “America’s largest media and tech moguls line up to kiss Trump’s ass”
“Jeff Bezos’ Amazon is reportedly planning to donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration—mirroring a similarly large donation from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman.
“The billionaires’ respective decisions to open their pocketbooks to the incoming president come as other tech leads and media moguls have similarly begun to soften their approach toward Trump—despite his promise to exact vengeance on news outlets that anger him. On Thursday, Rolling Stone reported that Trump’s lieutenants are planning more personal lawsuits and legal threats against news outlets during his second White House stint.”
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Article in Mediaite by David Gilmour, 12/13/24
Headline: ” ‘He’s Right!’ Colby Hall Says Media Has Been Tamed – And Trunp’s Person Of The Year Was A Veiled Threat”
“Mediaite’s Colby Hall agreed with President-elect Donald Trump’s take that the media had somewhat “tamed” in its coverage of him since the election but flagged Trump’s Person Of The Year speech at the New York Stock Exchange as a veiled threat.
The analysis came after Trump appeared on Wall Street Thursday to ring the bell in celebration of being named Time’s Person of the Year. Delivering a speech at the event, the president-elect mused about the more benevolent coverage he’d been receiving.
After thanking Time for the honor, he said, “The media is tamed down a little bit. They like us much better now I think. If they don’t, then we’ll just have to take them on again, and we don’t want to do that.”