Jeff Bezos Isn't Just Killing the Washington Post, He's Killing Thousands of News Sites/Newsrooms (in Dozens of Languages) That Rely on It for Many Decades Already
Not just slopfarms [1-5]; even the Ukraine-based reporters [6] are culled by Bezos, who's looking to please the dictators of the world
Dozens of reporters can produce hundreds of in-depth and high-impact reports every month. Yes, every month. Hundreds of them would produce many thousands of reports from all around the world every single year; other sites would then base articles (in other languages) on the newly-revealed information, i.e. based on these reports. That's the "normal" old news cycle and investigative journalists - not churnalists - disseminate key information (seminal facts). Armchair theorists cannot substitute that.
The vile oligarch with his trophy wife has decided to do a favour to the other vile oligarch with his trophy wife, "Melania", not just with a propaganda film branded "Documentary" but another wave of attacks on American media, impacting even famous reporters like Menn and some who cover Amazon (sometimes critically). The general idea, I think, it to end criticism (or divert criticism towards the powerless). It is ultimately doable; all they want to do is to dish out or produce slop... via social control media curated (censored) for Nazi-saluting maniacs who claim to be the richest people in the world. While kicking to the curb or SLAPPing any remaining media that is not directly controlled by oligarchs and habitually causes oligarchs to "fall" (because they're non-complicit in the top-to-bottom class war, they publish for the impoverished majority).
Not much is left in English-speaking news nowadays, except chaff and cruft, set aside LLM slop; after BBC took bribes from Epsteingate, got sued Epstein's pizza buddy, I struggle to see a future for the BBC. As noted or quoted the other day, "BBC proposes to close central regional investigations unit" (expect more puff pieces, no real revelations or game-changing bombshells).
And then there's VoA, NPR, PBS and Radio Free Asia (or the same thing for Europe's former Soviet colonies, which relied on Radio Free Europe). Autocrats like Viktor Orban know media's "threat" to them. Erdogan likewise. Cheeto II (second term) is rapidly attacking what's left of US media and even goes abroad (BBC, UK) to 'finish the job'.
The imperialism aspect of it must not be overlooked; it's typically hard to control foreign (overseas) media, but Cheeto II takes aim at everything.
As an associate put it earlier today: "The fallout from the 550+ fired from WaPo (this year and earlier) is terrible because *so many* other titles used to republish their material."
As I trawl around the Web I realise that for any real news site with a real (exclusive, original) article there can be dozens of 'echoes' or other domains either linking to it, paraphrasing it, reproducing it, or running some LLM against it. Important reports can be cited for many years, even decades, to come. They're crucial not only as some reference in Wikipedia. They're part of the history books, more so "journals of record" like the one Bezos bought only to control, then demolish.
Bezos has no background in journalism. He does not value information or facts, only money, power, and fame.
As an associate puts it: "Killing all those was about eliminating the soft power the US had built up over the last 100+ years."
And "social control media allows them to double-dip: algorithmic ranking + censorship" (it's basically a filter, not media, and it is moderated/controlled by people like Larry Ellison and MElon - MElison for short - who control the partisan outrage cycle and actively suppress discussion of Epstein in relation to their true master, Cheeto).
Time is in favour of the oligarchs because they can just "wait it out" or wait for rebellion to run out of steam, run out of resources, or get distracted by the next outage cycle, manufactured or at least reinforced in their curated social control media.
We'll do our best to produce more stories, focusing on technology and policy, as usual. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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A letter to the 300 axed Washington Post staffers from Carole Cadwalladr
The Post is a symbol, both for journalism and America, and for Jeff Bezos and Will Lewis to axe 300 of you in a single day, including those currently reporting in war zones, feels like an augury.
But as a journalist who worked for the Guardian for 20 years and who, alongside my colleagues, was binned in a similar fashion less than a year ago, I have important information to impart: do not give up.
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‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers
After years of growth under owner Bezos, the Post has been shedding staff over the last few years. About 240 staffers left via buyouts offered at the end of 2023, and another chunk of staffers took buyouts last year, which were offered to any employee with more than 10 years of experience.
Layoffs, particularly of journalists in the newsroom, have been less common. In fall 2024, the Post laid off 54 employees from the division responsible for its proprietary publishing software, and in January 2025, the Post laid off about 4% of staffers who worked in advertising, marketing and print operations.
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Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust: Report | Pew Research Center
A new Pew Research Center survey gets much more specific: How do Americans feel about 30 of the country’s major news sources?
Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party are much more likely than Republicans and GOP-leaning independents to both use and trust a number of major news sources. These include the major TV networks (ABC, CBS and NBC), the cable news networks CNN and MSNBC, major public broadcasters PBS and NPR, and the legacy newspaper with the largest number of digital subscribers, The New York Times.
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Fight!
This is a bloodbath. The purging of 300 journalists from one of the most important news titles in America is an incalculable loss.
This kind of institutional knowledge and infrastructure has been nurtured over generations. And now it’s gone. The DNA of Watergate has been passed down to the present generation of journalists. During Trump 1, it coined its “Democracy Dies in Darkness” slogan and did the hard yards of trying to hold the administration to account.
What I can’t actually believe it has the barefaced gall to still have that phrase on its masthead though I liked this take from the Reductress, titled: The Washington Post Lays Off Half Its Slogan.
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How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post
Bezos may be tiring of the Post, but he has not seemed inclined to sell the paper. Nor is it clear that would be a better, or at this point even feasible, outcome. Newspapers across the country are being bought up by private-equity firms that are essentially selling off the valuable parts. But there is another model for Bezos to consider: turning the Post into a nonprofit, endowed by Bezos but operating independently of him. For Bezos, this would reduce the role of the Post as a headache and a threat to other, more favored endeavors, such as his rocket company, Blue Origin. For the Post, assuming the endowment is sufficient, it would provide that continuing runway.
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Kyiv bureau among those axed by Jeff Bezos' Washington Post, hundreds of journalists laid off
The layoffs hit more than 300 journalists. Executive editor Matt Murray told staff that The Washington Post would narrow its focus to national politics, business, and health, according to the New York Times.