K Srinivasan
ONE of the reasons why Katherine Graham, the legendary former owner of the Washington Post (WaPo) was reluctant to sell her newspaper was the danger that it would at some point get into the hands of someone who had other business interests that could compromise the independence of WaPo. Graham died in 2001, and her children sold the Post to billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos in 2013. According to multiple sources (including Wikipedia), he is ‘ “hands-off owner”, holding teleconference calls with (the) executive editor every two weeks.’’
To be fair, by and large Bezos has kept off from the lure of interfering with the Post’s editorial direction. It has cost him considerably, including in India, where the Post is viewed in many quarters as extremely liberal and left-wing with little patience with the right or their perspective. It has few conservative commentators, and it prides itself on its liberal ethos.
Cat among pigeons
Weeks before the US presidential elections, Bezos set the cat among the pigeons by ordering that WaPo stop endorsing presidential candidates. While many supported the move, others castigated Bezos for abandoning a fine tradition and chickening out for fear of being targeted by Donald Trump in case he won the elections.
In a signed piece in the Washington Post, Bezos defended his decision: “Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose,” said Bezos and added, “Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election.…. ….. What presidential endorsements do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”
WaPo’s former Executive Editor Marty Baron slammed the move: ‘’I think that the pillars of democracy, particularly media institutions, need to stand up for what’s right. We need to resist pressure, no matter how severe, and I felt in this instance, what the Post demonstrated was weakness and weakness only invites more pressure.’’
Business empire
To his detractors, his vast Amazon empire and the increasingly frenetic pace at Blue Origin, his space start-up that is now really a behemoth, was the cause of Bezos opting out of the endorsement ritual. It has millions of dollars worth of contracts with NASA for space exploration, including the highly ambitious mission to the moon.
His company Amazon is a global behemoth and it won’t be difficult for an angry US President to tighten the screws on the online giant. Ideally, newspapers have no business to back one or the other candidate. It is for them to lay out the message of the candidates and let their readers decide. But endorsements have been a way of life in America and opting out makes all the news.
As it happened, Trump has been triumphant in the polls. And as we are all now witnessing, Bezos’s nemesis Elon Musk is in one of the driving seats in the Trump orbit. He is not just advising the President-elect but has also been appointed to a key role in dismantling the big bureaucracy in Washington.
Conflict of interest
Now look at it this way, Bezos goes mute thanks to his other businesses (at least that is the perception) and his rival (Elon Musk and Space X) goes big on Trump has a pole position in the new administration. One entrepreneur decided to go safe and the other decided to go for all or bust. And it is clear that Musk has beaten the odds. Nonetheless, the huge cooperation between SpaceX and NASA and Musk’s new role in the Trump administration is viewed by many pundits as a conflict of interest. But no one’s bothered.
In the weeks and months ahead, one can be sure that both Blue Origin and SpaceX will be in the news not just for their achievements, but also for the slugfest that is bound to happen sooner rather than later. Blue Origin has gone to court against SpaceX and there is a history of intense rivalry between the two companies and their founders. The Trump presidency will exacerbate that feud and put it on a short fuse. One hopes the Washington Post will be objective in reporting the battle royale!
