Jennifer Rubin, a Washington Post columnist, resigned from the newspaper, accusing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg of enabling former President Donald Trump. Rubin launched a new media outlet, The Contrarian, on Substack and criticized major media outlets for a 'bent-knee approach' to Trump. She argued that billionaires owning media companies have betrayed their audiences and sabotaged journalism.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos "and his cronies" are enabling"the most acute threat to American democracy" — President-elect Donald Trump — a Washington Post columnist warned as she resigned. Jennifer Rubin also called out ABC and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg as targets, and announced she was co-launching a new media outlet, The Contrarian, on Substack.
In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Rubin said she felt it was important to publicly call out Bezos, the Post and other outlets for taking what she characterized as a bent-knee approach to Trump., in 2020 said she no longer considered herself one, arguing that"there is no conservative movement or party today," and that"there is a Republican Party thoroughly infused with racism and intellectually corrupted by right-wing nationalism."CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as well as"corporate-owned cable TV networks" — came as she announced she was co-launching a new media outlet,Rubin sharply contrasted her new outlet with her prior employer and other media companies, a number of which she said have"scrambled to enlist Trump-friendly voices." "Corporate and billionaire owners of major media outlets have betrayed their audiences' loyalty and sabotaged journalism's sacred mission — defending, protecting and advancing democracy," Rubin said in a statement.Jennifer Rubin, Columnist, The Washington Post, appears on"Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C., Sunday Jan. 3, 2016. "The Washington Post's billionaire owner and enlisted management are among the offenders. They have undercut the values central to The Post's mission and that of all journalism: integrity, courage, and independence," Rubin wrote. "I cannot justify remaining at The Post," she wrote."Jeff Bezos and his cronies accommodate and enable the most acute threat to American democracy — Donald Trump — at a time when a vibrant free press is more essential than ever to democracy's survival and capacity to survive." Bezos since the fall has been under fire for moves seen as currying favor with Trump. Those include killing a planned Post editorial page endorsement of Vice Presidentin the presidential election, a $1 million donation by Amazon to Trump's inauguration fund, and Bezos visiting Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida. The day news broke that the Post endorsement had been killed, Trump met in Austin, Texas, with executives from the Bezos-owned space exploration company Blue Origin, among them CEO David Limp. "None of us could imagine Katharine Graham sending LBJ or Nixon a $1M check," Rubin said in her statement, referring to former Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Trump during his first term in office pointedly criticized Bezos, the online retail giant Amazon and the Post. In a 2019 lawsuit, Amazon claimed it lost a $10 billion, recently resigned from the newspaper after it refused to run a cartoon of hers depicting Bezos, Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Los Angeles Times Publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong supplicating before Trump as the president-elect towered over them. The cartoon also depicted Mickey Mouse, the mascot of the Walt Disney company. Disney owns ABC News and recently agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit by Trump by saying it would donate $15 million to a presidential foundation and museum of his.U.S. military is ready to respond to California wildfires, FEMA's Criswell saidFired Disney employee will plead guilty to hacking menus to hide peanut content Rubin told CNBC the number of billionaires who are donating to Trump after having been targets of his criticism was striking. "When are enough billions enough billions?" Rubin asked."I was under the impression that these people were best situated to resist authoritarianism, and it turns out they were the quickest to fall in line." "I think that they have financial interests that are very much dependent on the government," she said."For all of the talk of Silicon Valley's independence, they are in large part dependent on the largesse of the government."
BEZOS ZUCKERBERG TRUMP RUBIN JOURNALISM
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