Executives of Blue Origin briefly met with Trump within hours after paper spiked endorsement of Harris

The multi-billionaire owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, continued facing criticism throughout the weekend because executives from his aerospace company met with Donald Trump on the same day the newspaper prevented its editorial team from publishing an endorsement of his opponent in the US presidential election.

Senior news and opinion leaders at the Washington Post flew to Miami in late September 2024 to meet with Bezos, who had reservations about the paper issuing an endorsement in the 5 November election, the New York Times reported.

Amazon and the space exploration company Blue Origin are among Bezos-owned business that still compete for lucrative federal government contracts.

And the Post on Friday announced it would not endorse a candidate in the 5 November election after its editorial board had already drafted its endorsement of Kamala Harris.

      • Darkard@lemmy.world
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        25 days ago

        I think if he’s blasted then maybe he will think twice before doing it again

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Journalists have ruined this word.

        Another pet peeve I have of journalists in general: god-awful referencing. “A report by XYZ organisation shows…”

        Gee THANKS, “a report”, that’ll help me find the source… It’s wild there aren’t minimum regulations on news referencing in most countries (at least, I’m not aware of any).

        Thanks for being my 2¢ receptacle

  • logos@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”

    ― Benito Mussolini (apocryphal)

    • diffusive@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      This quote is not true (see this article for further details).

      But even if it was it would mean something different. In Italian “corporazioni” are not “corporations” (corporations are “grandi aziende”). Corporazioni are organisations of people doing a specific work. For example masons could have their own Corporazione (they don’t, Mussolini created the “ordini” but mainly for professions so for example even today for being an engineer you must register with the engineers corporazione).

      Assuming that quote was true and assuming the translation was somehow literal (hard to say without an original text) it would mean that state and productive sector should collaborate (for the greatness of the nation likely, given his kind of speeches).

      Also, Fascism was definitely not capitalism. Mussolini imposed in the board of the directors of every large company one member of the Fascist party. This for controlling their behaviour and making sure that they were aligned with the fascist agenda. Not exactly freedom (it was never their point) but not unchecked power of the corporations either.

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    In a way he’s doing the country a favor by shining a spotlight on how the power created by wealth can be blatantly abused. This should make us rethink freedom of the press and corporate control of media. News publishing is probably the most important area where antitrust laws should be applied and strengthened. In general, wealthy individuals and corporate boards have gone way past a reasonable point of simply buying controlling interests in something to acquire more power and influence than the public has through government. Democracy means nothing if kings and queens can sprout up inside of it. And that’s not “communism” talking, it’s commonsense-ism.

  • WrenFeathers@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    So… the Streisand effect is in full bloom now. They were going to endorse Harris. But they were told they can’t endorse Harris. Now, because of this- more people are aware that they intended to endorse Harris than anyone would have if they had just been allowed to from the beginning.

    We all know they endorse her. They’re just not being allowed to actually say it.

    Soooooo… TLDR?

    The message remains. Despite Bezos being a coward, WaPo still endorses Harris.

    • mynameisigglepiggle@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      The thing is here Bezos isn’t afraid of Trump because of retribution.

      He is afraid he won’t be able to corrupt him if he pisses him off

      • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        How the fuck is there someone that has to worry about whether they can make Trump more corrupt? Billionaires existing is a sign of a failed society.

    • blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works
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      24 days ago

      The problem is that the venn diagram of people who know about this and people who were undecided who to vote for has no overlap.

    • cm0002@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      shop local

      Be nice if “shopping local” didn’t mean 2-6x higher prices, a lot of us can’t afford that kinda price hike

    • Homescool@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      Not yet. Happy to jump when there is a viable alternative. I’m not willing to give up all the conveniences and efficiency for a cause. Also, these campaigns rarely actually work. I would be more interested if there were an actual well thought out migration pattern in motion for regular consumers who will never care but spend most of the money

      • Granbo's Holy Hotrod@lemmy.world
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        25 days ago

        And this…will be our end. There are so many world problems where this is the answer. I’m not poking at you directly, just that this right here is why we can’t have nice things.

        • Homescool@lemmy.world
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          25 days ago

          I would respond by saying that focusing on the attitude or values of an individual or individual type is a convenient distraction from the truth that it is extremely impractical to do what you ask, at scale. The change has to be systemic. And the only systemic change that is practically on the table, is letting the system spin faster until it breaks. That is the only practical, proven path.

          Name anything like this in history. Old solutions are well defended against by those in power

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    The best thing about nepo-bootstrap baby bezos seems to be his wife, who divorced him.