WaPo and NYT pull back on saying Giuliani was warned by the FBI.
New book coming out on Bezos, part of which deals with him using his ownership of WaPo when his sexting story broke to influence reporting on it. Bezos tried to say the Saudi’s were responsible for for the leaked pictures (they did hack him but didn’t try to blackmail him with the pictures, his girlfriends brother was).
Timex
3412
I’d have to see what kind of actual evidence is out there, but the video there doesn’t seem real compelling.
The guy seems kind of like an indian Tucker Carlson, using similar bullshit rhetorical devices to handwave away needing things like “facts”. When WaPo suggested there was no evidence of the claim that Amazon was harming Bernie Sanders, because Sanders criticized Amazon, this guy says “The only evidence I need, is human nature!”
Nah man, you can take that bullshit back to Fox.
Whether this book presents some actual evidence that Bezos misused his ownership of the Post, we’ll have to see… although this also seems quite a bit different from using the Post to further his political goals, even if it were true.
Fits with my own experience and what I’ve heard from the book.
I believe that Bezos sincerely believed that the Saudis were responsible for the hack and the leaked pictures. Maybe this is because I’m a Post subscriber and in reality Bezos knew the sordid truth all along, but knowing the human capacity for self-deception I’m sure Bezos believed his humiliation was the result of an international conspiracy rather than a petty opportunist. Even if Bezos dishonestly pushed the Saudi story in the Post, I’m not sure what that was supposed to cover-up?
Let’s not forget what was also happening around the time vis-a-vis the Post and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis murdered one of the Post’s guys.
It’s not hard to believe that the Saudis were mad at the Post being angry and not dropping the issue.
I think it’s not so much a cover up as a distraction from something more elicit than being a victim of a foreign government hacking. I’m also a post subscriber and it was the first newspaper I read.
At this point we know it was the brother of the gf, but definitely added weight to the idea that the Saudis were behind the leak of the pictures.
Timex
3417
This still seems, at best, to be a bait and switch attempt.
They’re trying to say, “Hey look, there’s some indication that Bezos was influential in the reporting of the Saudis hacking him (which they did)”, and then use that to justify the entirely unsubstantiated assertion that Bezos uses the WaPo to further his own political goals.
It isn’t the reporting about the Saudi hacking that is the issue, it was Bezos driving reporters to conflating the hacking with the pics, which Bezos did publicly in a medium post and, according to the book, did privately with the Post and the Daily Beast management.
I don’t think Bezos is accused of having political motivations, it seems more about concerns with the board and public perception.
Even if he was concerned about the board and public perception, I’m pretty sure he also believed it was true.
He may have had the best intentions in the world for influencing reporting in the midst of an ongoing investigation, should the reporting of his influence be accurate. To me the intention doesn’t make the willingness to influence reporting any better when the person in question controls a major newspaper.
As far as I can tell, what Bezos did was totally transparent, and no different from what any other prominent person would do if they didn’t own media. The only connection with the Washington Post at all was the possible motivation for the Saudis. If Bezos didn’t own the Post, he undoubtedly would’ve come up with some other reason that the Saudis, who had in fact hacked his phone, might be out to get him.
There’s really no story here. Bezos is not Murdoch, using his media empire to advance not only his ideological views but his personal business interests.
ShivaX
3422
Unqualified person announces lack of qualifications to world.
Zylon
3423
Is this someone who anyone cares who she is?
White House Correspondent and Sr Diplomatic Correspondent at CNN till last year.
Still a dumb shit thing to say, but unfortunately, she’s def held positions where we would have relied upon her to convey important information regularly.
CraigM
3425
This explains everything about why the mainstream media was completely incapable of dealing with Trump.
They literally do not understand their job.
