- The thing I keep circling back to is that, when Bezos originally bought the Post, it legit seemed like the least-bad option. The expectation was that billionaires would treat media outlets like they do sports franchises — something to boast about owning, as a form of expensive status.
- NEWS: The cuts were so severe that at least one department head asked to leave The Post rather than be included in the planning. Peter Finn, The Post's international editor, requested that he be laid off once he learned about the scope of the cuts to his section. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...
- And Bezos DID treat the Post that way, for nearly a decade. It wasn’t GREAT that we were leaving the salvation of news to the benevolence of billionaires, but in the absence of significant public subsidy, all the other available options were worse.Feb 4, 2026 22:22
- It’s a funding system with a single point of failure. You need the billionaires not to be moral cretins who decide to demolish the news to enact their own personal agenda.
- So the lesson we ought to take away from this is that any system built on the assumption that billionaires will not reveal themselves to be moral cretins is destined to eventually fail.
- Asleep at the wheel then. For all its horror, 2026 has had zero surprises.
