While I agree that it is bad for Bezos to restrict his newspaper editors to restrict the points of view they publish, the characterization of "free markets and personal liberties" as being right wing or conservative. However, Bezos's statement on its own does not have a clear meaning. I think most economists would agree that a market with high tariffs and subsidies for favored companies is not a free market. Taken at face value, I would think the WaPo would be of Trump's proposed tariffs. The could also be critical of the CHIPS act, the Farm bill, and the government trying to shut down TikTok.
It means more money for the wealthy and less for us. It means less regulations for them, more death and disease for us. It's all been a long thought out plan starting with Richard Nixon and Lewis Powell Jr, with his famous memo, in the 1970s. Business interests have worked to take over our country from the inside out and we are now in the endgame. I highly recommend this podcast on the issue: https://www.levernews.com/masterplan/
you've defined the liberal version of conspiracy theory - hardly more credible than QAnon. the only things missing are the knights templar and the masons.
i don't doubt for a moment that business interests act in their own interest. we need guardrails on capitalism, and guardians of the guardrails.
but if you don't believe in capitalism - or at least believe it's better than any alternative - what would you propose as an alternative? and how would we all - other than the mega-wealthy - be better off in your system?
Not a theory. 100% what happened and is happening. Go ahead, keep youre head in the sand as we continue to get our country stolen from us. Go read the Powell Memo, look up what the Federalist society has done. This a conspiracy, its not a theory. Like in Pirates of the Caribbean, You best start believe in conspiraciys, BobE, youre in one!
There is a middle ground before you two decide pistols at ten feet. It has been proven time and time again that centralized government centered economies don’t work, not for the ordinary Joe Schmos of the world. The best modern example we have is the USSR, a country of ungodly natural riches that could barely provide for its own people because of corrupt and inept central management. On the other hand totally free market economies need to deal with the human element. This involves a tremendous amount of corruption and cheating and provides too much temptation for those only concerned with the bottom line and the scammers of the world. I have no problem with government oversight and worker and consumer protections. I see major problems with investment firms taking over many businesses and properties. Their primary concern is with investors and returns, not the services they are supposed to be providing. The free market assumes that customers and clients will drive their actions. It’s not always true as execs simply shut down what they see as unprofitable aspects of their portfolios and consumers and employees lose out.
I go out of my way not to mention communism. There is no such thing in any large country on Earth. It is a highly overused and misunderstood term used to describe anything not considered American. True communism really is the workers paradise. The means of production and the output is shared. There is no need for bureaucracy, therefore the Soviet use of the term “comrade”. It has never worked because it is inefficient in large societies and we humans don’t really believe we are all equal. People that believe themselves better want more than others. Now which country has what I described? The USSR, China, and Cuba are not communist and never were, at least not according to Marx.
Don’t forget about the infamous trickledown plan which proposed that if rich business and corporate interests got favored tax rates and other incentives, they would grow their businesses, meaning more jobs for everyone else and lower prices for consumers. It didn’t work. Studies showed that a great deal of the money were not reinvested in the businesses. Salaried execs made more. Investors received higher dividends. Otherwise, not much “trickled down”. Now we live in a society where many small town economies have been devastated by mom and pop stores being unable to compete with mega businesses. In many rural areas, the only businesses are bars. I’m just waiting for Walmart and Amazon to put in their own bars and restaurants to make them truly one stop businesses. Many years ago, my father lived in Battle Creek, Michigan. (Just for you EZ- his kids went to Michigan and green was not allowed in the house)A new superstore, Meijer, had recently opened. I was in awe. A grocery store and department store in one building. You could do your banking there, get your shoes fixed, buy cards and stamps, eat lunch. I was too dumb at the time to realize what it was doing to local businesses. It gave workers the opportunity to work for minimum wage rather than own their own stores.
What is not clear is what is being restricted by stating the opinions must favor free markets and personal liberties. Those are quite broad. How the get applied to specific opinion pieces is hard to say. If what some suspect is true, that Bezos does not want criticism of Trump's policies, then that would mean criticizing large tariffs is off limits. But that is nothing compared to criticism of how amazon's search works to steer it customers into buying or avoiding certain brands. I would assume that would be off limits.
First of all, he doesn't really favor free markets of the Wall Street Journal / Milton Friedman variety. He wants (and has) Crony Capitalism, a miserable marriage of money and purchased political influence. When personal liberties include the freedom to stomp on others because you can, I kinda draw the line.
Most people reacting to this have been pretty clear that a good opinion section presents a range of views. And most opinion-page editors are or should be free to select among well reasoned, contrasting viewpoints on the major issues of the day. If Bezos had dumped George Will on grounds that he's not liberal enough, I'd be objecting loudly.
George Will believes in the free market (aka, businesses can do what they want,) hes not in any danger of going anywhere. If Master Plan is too conspiratorial for people here, then read Billionaires Ball by Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks. These ultra wealthy use "free markets" as a bs term to take advantage of us
Not suprising in trump's cabinet of sycophants and creeps that there was no-one willing to ask the Dear Leader WTF Musk was doing there, hovering over them in his nazi-adjacent uniform while the doddering capo looked on and grinned his ghastly grin.
Maybe Burger Boy feels they need a babysitter. So far they are certainly acting like small children unable to think for themselves that need to be totally directed by a responsible adult. Unfortunately, there aren’t any at the present time in the White House.
The void quip delighted me so much that I tracked it down on *that* website to copy and re-post on my FB. Also sent to my friend who runs a well-regarded philosophy group (serious stuff and fun stuff) for consideration. We philosophy nerds are dark bunch with an appropriately dark sense of humor.
The WaPo reportedly lost over $100 million last year now it will probably lose double that. Bezos is an idiot for doing this. The cancellations that are going to happen will be enormous and bite that fool in the ass. To think that he paid $250 million for the paper and now actively is trying to destroy it is insane. But then he is the out of touch billionaire who spent $500 million for his ridiculous yacht that needs a $250 million support yacht to survive at sea!
Unlike Muskrat, I don’t see Bezos as an idiot. This is a win-win for him. If WaPo survives, it becomes a mouthpiece for his new lord and master, Burger Boy. If not, WaPo goes the way of many other dailies, Bezos takes a tax loss, and goes back to cheating people on Amazon.
Eric I am having a hard time with your immediate dismissal of the new Washington Post opinion section before you have read a single word or columnist. Not sure how long you have been reading it but as a WAPO subscriber for the last 4 year I have certainly only seen a liberal side to their pages, besides George Will who stood out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the opinions on the pages.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
The objections have less to do with the nature of the content that Bezos is mandating than they do with the fact that he is mandating anything at all. Responsible publishers have historically maintained a hands off approach to editorial and opinion page content (see “Hearst”, “McCormick” and “Murdoch” for examples of ones who did not), but Bezos’s directive amounts to Machiavellian meddling. But hey, it’s his toy.
The statement of Bezos raises a number of questions and possibilities. It’s hard to believe that this is the paper that once risked everything to expose Watergate. Taken at face value, Bezos is saying that it is not the responsibility of the Post. It’s a newspaper. If it is not their responsibility to present varying views, then whose is it? Bezos is suggesting to do Google searches and hope you can find a reliable, verifiable site. Bezos has also decided that he alone knows what readers should read. That is on the way to fascism. The real question is why. Is he one of the cringing Trump chickens I wrote about a few days ago? Has he secretly been a Trump sycophant all along? Several years ago, I wrote about the dangers of financial managers taking over businesses whose primary purpose is not simply minding the bottom line. Newspapers are too important to democracy to be at the whims of a money manager who thinks he knows what people need to read. His explanation that people with divergent interests and views can always find what they want is weak at best. I have a feeling we won’t need to wait long to find out what his real agenda is. Also keep in mind that he might not care if WaPo goes away. Dump a money loser and take the tax loss. After all he can always find what he needs to know on the Internet.
All true. I won't be cancelling our WaPo subscription -- yet -- because a longtime dear friend who still needs a paycheck works on its staff. But henceforth it sounds as if its masthead should be revised to read Washington PistAway. (Apologies to aforementioned Gene Weingarten, who cleverly has branded some of his newsletter as the Washington Pist.)
Back a number of years ago, there was a movie called “Rollerball”, starring James Caan. For the first part of the movie, you believe you are watching a violent professional game of the future, kind of combining roller derby and hockey. After awhile the watcher discovers that there are no more government entities. The entire world has been taken over by corporations acting in a highly fascist manner. Rollerball is not what it seems. It is entertainment to keep the masses occupied while the corporate heads rule the world and determine everyone’s future. They have wiped out the past so no one can figure out how things came to be as they are. The corporate structure has always been around and always will be, using elements of “1984”. All one has to do is conform. What a choice! We can give in the fascist conformity of Russia or China. Or we can surrender to the fascist conformity of corporations that will control the purse strings and the means of survival. The third choice is that we rebel before it’s too late.
From NPR today: "More than 75,000 digital subscribers to The Washington Post have cancelled since its owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced on Wednesday that he would radically overhaul the paper's opinion pages to reflect libertarian priorities and to exclude opposing points of view."
On a similar theme, "Running Man" with Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1987, based on a Stephen King novel, where the US is under a totalitarian regime which controls the population with a state-run TV game show. Bonus - they use fake videos to promote a convenient narrative.
You'd really like this podcast. It starts at Watergate and shows us how we've gotten here. You are more right than you think. It's a plan by big business to take over our country: https://www.levernews.com/masterplan/
I also find it interesting that Bezos loosed a 7 journalist investigation team to look into Elon Musk's federal contacts - a laudable news-gathering decision (IMO). Based on various news reports, it seems apparent that Musk's chainsaw approach to cutting the federal gov't willy-nilly seems to be particularly surgeon-like with respect to those federal agencies that have been "hampering" Musk's particular sources of federal largess - Space X, Tesla's (proposed) sale of electric vehicles to the military, etc.
Overall, it seems to me that Bezos is now openly Weaponizing WaPo as a tool to promote Amazon's own businesses with the feds - AWS, Blue Origin, etc. - which is why he loosed his reporter dogs on Musk's conflicts of interest with the feds. (Apparently, it must have been grating for him to have Musk - his major competitor - as the de facto US President.)
Don't forget this was a topic covered last week. News organizations are cringing at possible revenge moves by Burger Boy. Look at what's happing with the AP because they insist on the Gulf of Mexico. With Bezos it's double trouble. He doesn't even want to think what could happen to Amazon. Of course, people that abhor cringing chickens could also bypass Amazon. So Bezos may not have helped himself by smooching Trump.
In regard to NFL overtime, I’ve said this before and will say it again. They should pick a side of the field, doesn’t matter which one, and just go back and forth with the one play 2-point conversion until one team makes it and the other doesn’t. Should not allow the tush-push for this play. Overtimes would be short and it would be exciting for us fans.
Laura the Talking Horse has suggested that government employees should join "the real world" and get "real jobs." Apart from the obvious insult from someone who contributes nothing but bilious ignorance to the world, it betrays the basic ignorance and cruelty of her particular kind of MAGA buffoon.
Trump and Musk have convinced the MAGA crowd that federal workers are 21st century welfare queens, so it's not surprising the rest of his sycophants are messaging the same.
And clearly neither she nor the Muskrats know what the NIH does. They have just announced that NO NIH Senior Scientists can be renewed when their contract runs out. That means that TEAMS of researchers on Alzheimers, Diabetes, Cancer, etc. will be gutted. So good luck to us all that we don't get the diseases that could have been cured by these teams.
So, Eric, besides canceling the Post and Prime, are you considering resigning from the Christians and “their suffocating cultural and numerical dominance, … right-wing talk, commentary and online screeds“?
i believe EZ is overreacting to Bezos' decision to limit opinion in WaPo to support of free markets and personal liberties - 'Bezos’ notion that conservative “viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion” is just bullshit. Those viewpoints are everywhere.'
1] free markets and personal liberties are not conservative POVs, especially in the authoritarian trump era - they are libertarian principles. and whatever you think of libertarianism, whatever you believe libertarianism to mean, its core beliefs are personal choice and non-aggression - the latter meaning my perosnal choice cannot aggress on your personal choice, and vice-versa.
trump and his sycophants and his masses of lemmings are not supporters of free markets and personal liberties - quite the contrary.
2] newspapers are not what they were when EZ & i and many of the PS readership were growing up and maturing. my dad worked for the Chgo Trib for 38 yrs. when i was growing up, we got 4 newspapers in our home every weekday - delivery of the Trib in the AM; dad brought home the PM Trib, Daily News & Chgo American/Today ea nite. i read them all. now the S-T is barely surviving, on life support as a non-profit; and the Trib is a shadow of its former self.
i don't read WaPo, never have, except for occasional links to articles sent to me. the shock and dismay of the WaPo readership - heartfelt & sincere, i'm sure - also shows lack of recognition for the changing times.
is WaPo going to contiue to do investigative journalism? if so, what's the problem with changing the focus of the op-ed section?
if not, then that would be a change worth kvetching about.
3] bezos owns WaPo. he has no obligation to print a range of POVs. he can do watever he pleases with WaPo - and accept the consequences. there's no noblesse oblige to satisfy a wide range of opinions in op-ed.
in fact, i find, for example, much of the WSJ's op-ed shallow, narrow and occasionally borderline irrational. but their news reporting - incl'g investigative journalism - has a hard wall with the paper's op-ed. the news reporting is 1st rate, and plays it straight. i've been a subscriber for many yrs - and typically ignore the WSJ's op-ed.
4] i agree with EZ on the value of reading the opinions of those with whom i [may] disagree. that's one of many reasons why i like the PS and the responses of its readers.
The alligator and doing your research quip was spot on! Does this not give a great example of people doing their own research? Instead of listening to the experts who have had decades research and experience they forge ahead and conduct their own experiment. Or, more likely, they just go on the internet and find someone else saying that alligators are not harmful to people and anything to the contrary is fake news.
Real ID. If the government does stick with the deadline how many news stories around the country's airports will be of interviewing people denied boarding because they did not have Real IDs? The same response of "We had no idea that our regular drivers license is no longer accepted." Perhaps these people were caught up doing their own research on another topic to pay attention to anything else for the last 20 years.
While I agree that it is bad for Bezos to restrict his newspaper editors to restrict the points of view they publish, the characterization of "free markets and personal liberties" as being right wing or conservative. However, Bezos's statement on its own does not have a clear meaning. I think most economists would agree that a market with high tariffs and subsidies for favored companies is not a free market. Taken at face value, I would think the WaPo would be of Trump's proposed tariffs. The could also be critical of the CHIPS act, the Farm bill, and the government trying to shut down TikTok.
True, but "free markets and personal liberties" will mean whatever Trump and Musk want it to mean.
It means more money for the wealthy and less for us. It means less regulations for them, more death and disease for us. It's all been a long thought out plan starting with Richard Nixon and Lewis Powell Jr, with his famous memo, in the 1970s. Business interests have worked to take over our country from the inside out and we are now in the endgame. I highly recommend this podcast on the issue: https://www.levernews.com/masterplan/
you've defined the liberal version of conspiracy theory - hardly more credible than QAnon. the only things missing are the knights templar and the masons.
i don't doubt for a moment that business interests act in their own interest. we need guardrails on capitalism, and guardians of the guardrails.
but if you don't believe in capitalism - or at least believe it's better than any alternative - what would you propose as an alternative? and how would we all - other than the mega-wealthy - be better off in your system?
Not a theory. 100% what happened and is happening. Go ahead, keep youre head in the sand as we continue to get our country stolen from us. Go read the Powell Memo, look up what the Federalist society has done. This a conspiracy, its not a theory. Like in Pirates of the Caribbean, You best start believe in conspiraciys, BobE, youre in one!
I mean, comd on man! Bezos just said it!
There is a middle ground before you two decide pistols at ten feet. It has been proven time and time again that centralized government centered economies don’t work, not for the ordinary Joe Schmos of the world. The best modern example we have is the USSR, a country of ungodly natural riches that could barely provide for its own people because of corrupt and inept central management. On the other hand totally free market economies need to deal with the human element. This involves a tremendous amount of corruption and cheating and provides too much temptation for those only concerned with the bottom line and the scammers of the world. I have no problem with government oversight and worker and consumer protections. I see major problems with investment firms taking over many businesses and properties. Their primary concern is with investors and returns, not the services they are supposed to be providing. The free market assumes that customers and clients will drive their actions. It’s not always true as execs simply shut down what they see as unprofitable aspects of their portfolios and consumers and employees lose out.
I never mentioned communism. Thats a false dicotomy put up by BobE. Im talking corruption.
I go out of my way not to mention communism. There is no such thing in any large country on Earth. It is a highly overused and misunderstood term used to describe anything not considered American. True communism really is the workers paradise. The means of production and the output is shared. There is no need for bureaucracy, therefore the Soviet use of the term “comrade”. It has never worked because it is inefficient in large societies and we humans don’t really believe we are all equal. People that believe themselves better want more than others. Now which country has what I described? The USSR, China, and Cuba are not communist and never were, at least not according to Marx.
Don’t forget about the infamous trickledown plan which proposed that if rich business and corporate interests got favored tax rates and other incentives, they would grow their businesses, meaning more jobs for everyone else and lower prices for consumers. It didn’t work. Studies showed that a great deal of the money were not reinvested in the businesses. Salaried execs made more. Investors received higher dividends. Otherwise, not much “trickled down”. Now we live in a society where many small town economies have been devastated by mom and pop stores being unable to compete with mega businesses. In many rural areas, the only businesses are bars. I’m just waiting for Walmart and Amazon to put in their own bars and restaurants to make them truly one stop businesses. Many years ago, my father lived in Battle Creek, Michigan. (Just for you EZ- his kids went to Michigan and green was not allowed in the house)A new superstore, Meijer, had recently opened. I was in awe. A grocery store and department store in one building. You could do your banking there, get your shoes fixed, buy cards and stamps, eat lunch. I was too dumb at the time to realize what it was doing to local businesses. It gave workers the opportunity to work for minimum wage rather than own their own stores.
Its exactly this and its every aspect of the country. Everything is monetized and owned by corporations. Wages are down, wealth inequality is up.
What’s not clear about his limiting commentary to a single viewpoint, regardless of its merits?
What is not clear is what is being restricted by stating the opinions must favor free markets and personal liberties. Those are quite broad. How the get applied to specific opinion pieces is hard to say. If what some suspect is true, that Bezos does not want criticism of Trump's policies, then that would mean criticizing large tariffs is off limits. But that is nothing compared to criticism of how amazon's search works to steer it customers into buying or avoiding certain brands. I would assume that would be off limits.
First of all, he doesn't really favor free markets of the Wall Street Journal / Milton Friedman variety. He wants (and has) Crony Capitalism, a miserable marriage of money and purchased political influence. When personal liberties include the freedom to stomp on others because you can, I kinda draw the line.
I presume that had he announced opposition to content that endorsed fascist and authoritarian positions he would have been lauded.
Most people reacting to this have been pretty clear that a good opinion section presents a range of views. And most opinion-page editors are or should be free to select among well reasoned, contrasting viewpoints on the major issues of the day. If Bezos had dumped George Will on grounds that he's not liberal enough, I'd be objecting loudly.
George Will believes in the free market (aka, businesses can do what they want,) hes not in any danger of going anywhere. If Master Plan is too conspiratorial for people here, then read Billionaires Ball by Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks. These ultra wealthy use "free markets" as a bs term to take advantage of us
I had the same reaction. Who favors opposition to personal liberties? Aren't LGBTQ+ people expressing their personal liberties?
As of today, they are losing their protections in Iowa. Look at the states around us. We are an island in a sea of retro conservatism.
Not suprising in trump's cabinet of sycophants and creeps that there was no-one willing to ask the Dear Leader WTF Musk was doing there, hovering over them in his nazi-adjacent uniform while the doddering capo looked on and grinned his ghastly grin.
Maybe Burger Boy feels they need a babysitter. So far they are certainly acting like small children unable to think for themselves that need to be totally directed by a responsible adult. Unfortunately, there aren’t any at the present time in the White House.
He’s turned the White House into a mafia outfit — he’s the don, Elon is his consigliere, and the cabinet is full of made men.
The void quip delighted me so much that I tracked it down on *that* website to copy and re-post on my FB. Also sent to my friend who runs a well-regarded philosophy group (serious stuff and fun stuff) for consideration. We philosophy nerds are dark bunch with an appropriately dark sense of humor.
Which website is *that* website? I am dense.
The one formerly known as twitter
Thanks. I had no idea it had become taboo to say its name.
The WaPo reportedly lost over $100 million last year now it will probably lose double that. Bezos is an idiot for doing this. The cancellations that are going to happen will be enormous and bite that fool in the ass. To think that he paid $250 million for the paper and now actively is trying to destroy it is insane. But then he is the out of touch billionaire who spent $500 million for his ridiculous yacht that needs a $250 million support yacht to survive at sea!
Which unfortunately means that the Post is just spare change.
Unlike Muskrat, I don’t see Bezos as an idiot. This is a win-win for him. If WaPo survives, it becomes a mouthpiece for his new lord and master, Burger Boy. If not, WaPo goes the way of many other dailies, Bezos takes a tax loss, and goes back to cheating people on Amazon.
Speaking of sports and unusual surveys, maybe you could create one to find out what body part Bear fans would sacrifice for Super Bowl wins? Coach Johnson offers his testicles! https://www.instagram.com/p/DGjcSLTxzon/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Reminds me of this classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-WhIpdqrNk&t=9s
Eric I am having a hard time with your immediate dismissal of the new Washington Post opinion section before you have read a single word or columnist. Not sure how long you have been reading it but as a WAPO subscriber for the last 4 year I have certainly only seen a liberal side to their pages, besides George Will who stood out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the opinions on the pages.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
Marc Theissen, Hugh Hewitt, etc. ... I subscribed to the WP for many years but am done now.
Jennifer Rubin was also very conservative until the fat orange traitor broke her. Now she's slightly liberal & flat out hates him!
Jennifer Rubin's column used to be named "Right Turn"!!!
The objections have less to do with the nature of the content that Bezos is mandating than they do with the fact that he is mandating anything at all. Responsible publishers have historically maintained a hands off approach to editorial and opinion page content (see “Hearst”, “McCormick” and “Murdoch” for examples of ones who did not), but Bezos’s directive amounts to Machiavellian meddling. But hey, it’s his toy.
Not buying. I have seen too many conservatives ignore the amount of conservative commentary that appears so they can play victim.
Mary Schmich nailed it! Brava!!
The statement of Bezos raises a number of questions and possibilities. It’s hard to believe that this is the paper that once risked everything to expose Watergate. Taken at face value, Bezos is saying that it is not the responsibility of the Post. It’s a newspaper. If it is not their responsibility to present varying views, then whose is it? Bezos is suggesting to do Google searches and hope you can find a reliable, verifiable site. Bezos has also decided that he alone knows what readers should read. That is on the way to fascism. The real question is why. Is he one of the cringing Trump chickens I wrote about a few days ago? Has he secretly been a Trump sycophant all along? Several years ago, I wrote about the dangers of financial managers taking over businesses whose primary purpose is not simply minding the bottom line. Newspapers are too important to democracy to be at the whims of a money manager who thinks he knows what people need to read. His explanation that people with divergent interests and views can always find what they want is weak at best. I have a feeling we won’t need to wait long to find out what his real agenda is. Also keep in mind that he might not care if WaPo goes away. Dump a money loser and take the tax loss. After all he can always find what he needs to know on the Internet.
All true. I won't be cancelling our WaPo subscription -- yet -- because a longtime dear friend who still needs a paycheck works on its staff. But henceforth it sounds as if its masthead should be revised to read Washington PistAway. (Apologies to aforementioned Gene Weingarten, who cleverly has branded some of his newsletter as the Washington Pist.)
Back a number of years ago, there was a movie called “Rollerball”, starring James Caan. For the first part of the movie, you believe you are watching a violent professional game of the future, kind of combining roller derby and hockey. After awhile the watcher discovers that there are no more government entities. The entire world has been taken over by corporations acting in a highly fascist manner. Rollerball is not what it seems. It is entertainment to keep the masses occupied while the corporate heads rule the world and determine everyone’s future. They have wiped out the past so no one can figure out how things came to be as they are. The corporate structure has always been around and always will be, using elements of “1984”. All one has to do is conform. What a choice! We can give in the fascist conformity of Russia or China. Or we can surrender to the fascist conformity of corporations that will control the purse strings and the means of survival. The third choice is that we rebel before it’s too late.
Holy moly I had no idea that was what Rollerball was about.
From NPR today: "More than 75,000 digital subscribers to The Washington Post have cancelled since its owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced on Wednesday that he would radically overhaul the paper's opinion pages to reflect libertarian priorities and to exclude opposing points of view."
On a similar theme, "Running Man" with Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1987, based on a Stephen King novel, where the US is under a totalitarian regime which controls the population with a state-run TV game show. Bonus - they use fake videos to promote a convenient narrative.
You'd really like this podcast. It starts at Watergate and shows us how we've gotten here. You are more right than you think. It's a plan by big business to take over our country: https://www.levernews.com/masterplan/
I also find it interesting that Bezos loosed a 7 journalist investigation team to look into Elon Musk's federal contacts - a laudable news-gathering decision (IMO). Based on various news reports, it seems apparent that Musk's chainsaw approach to cutting the federal gov't willy-nilly seems to be particularly surgeon-like with respect to those federal agencies that have been "hampering" Musk's particular sources of federal largess - Space X, Tesla's (proposed) sale of electric vehicles to the military, etc.
Overall, it seems to me that Bezos is now openly Weaponizing WaPo as a tool to promote Amazon's own businesses with the feds - AWS, Blue Origin, etc. - which is why he loosed his reporter dogs on Musk's conflicts of interest with the feds. (Apparently, it must have been grating for him to have Musk - his major competitor - as the de facto US President.)
Don't forget this was a topic covered last week. News organizations are cringing at possible revenge moves by Burger Boy. Look at what's happing with the AP because they insist on the Gulf of Mexico. With Bezos it's double trouble. He doesn't even want to think what could happen to Amazon. Of course, people that abhor cringing chickens could also bypass Amazon. So Bezos may not have helped himself by smooching Trump.
In regard to NFL overtime, I’ve said this before and will say it again. They should pick a side of the field, doesn’t matter which one, and just go back and forth with the one play 2-point conversion until one team makes it and the other doesn’t. Should not allow the tush-push for this play. Overtimes would be short and it would be exciting for us fans.
"Free markets and personal liberties" will mean whatever Trump and Musk what it to mean.
Laura the Talking Horse has suggested that government employees should join "the real world" and get "real jobs." Apart from the obvious insult from someone who contributes nothing but bilious ignorance to the world, it betrays the basic ignorance and cruelty of her particular kind of MAGA buffoon.
Trump and Musk have convinced the MAGA crowd that federal workers are 21st century welfare queens, so it's not surprising the rest of his sycophants are messaging the same.
And clearly neither she nor the Muskrats know what the NIH does. They have just announced that NO NIH Senior Scientists can be renewed when their contract runs out. That means that TEAMS of researchers on Alzheimers, Diabetes, Cancer, etc. will be gutted. So good luck to us all that we don't get the diseases that could have been cured by these teams.
Love your Father/Son pic from ‘92!
So, Eric, besides canceling the Post and Prime, are you considering resigning from the Christians and “their suffocating cultural and numerical dominance, … right-wing talk, commentary and online screeds“?
What happened to “maladroit,” one of my favorites of your descriptors for Hizzoner?
Brandon doesn't deserve the honorific of "Hizzoner"!
i believe EZ is overreacting to Bezos' decision to limit opinion in WaPo to support of free markets and personal liberties - 'Bezos’ notion that conservative “viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion” is just bullshit. Those viewpoints are everywhere.'
1] free markets and personal liberties are not conservative POVs, especially in the authoritarian trump era - they are libertarian principles. and whatever you think of libertarianism, whatever you believe libertarianism to mean, its core beliefs are personal choice and non-aggression - the latter meaning my perosnal choice cannot aggress on your personal choice, and vice-versa.
trump and his sycophants and his masses of lemmings are not supporters of free markets and personal liberties - quite the contrary.
2] newspapers are not what they were when EZ & i and many of the PS readership were growing up and maturing. my dad worked for the Chgo Trib for 38 yrs. when i was growing up, we got 4 newspapers in our home every weekday - delivery of the Trib in the AM; dad brought home the PM Trib, Daily News & Chgo American/Today ea nite. i read them all. now the S-T is barely surviving, on life support as a non-profit; and the Trib is a shadow of its former self.
i don't read WaPo, never have, except for occasional links to articles sent to me. the shock and dismay of the WaPo readership - heartfelt & sincere, i'm sure - also shows lack of recognition for the changing times.
is WaPo going to contiue to do investigative journalism? if so, what's the problem with changing the focus of the op-ed section?
if not, then that would be a change worth kvetching about.
3] bezos owns WaPo. he has no obligation to print a range of POVs. he can do watever he pleases with WaPo - and accept the consequences. there's no noblesse oblige to satisfy a wide range of opinions in op-ed.
in fact, i find, for example, much of the WSJ's op-ed shallow, narrow and occasionally borderline irrational. but their news reporting - incl'g investigative journalism - has a hard wall with the paper's op-ed. the news reporting is 1st rate, and plays it straight. i've been a subscriber for many yrs - and typically ignore the WSJ's op-ed.
4] i agree with EZ on the value of reading the opinions of those with whom i [may] disagree. that's one of many reasons why i like the PS and the responses of its readers.
The alligator and doing your research quip was spot on! Does this not give a great example of people doing their own research? Instead of listening to the experts who have had decades research and experience they forge ahead and conduct their own experiment. Or, more likely, they just go on the internet and find someone else saying that alligators are not harmful to people and anything to the contrary is fake news.
Real ID. If the government does stick with the deadline how many news stories around the country's airports will be of interviewing people denied boarding because they did not have Real IDs? The same response of "We had no idea that our regular drivers license is no longer accepted." Perhaps these people were caught up doing their own research on another topic to pay attention to anything else for the last 20 years.