democracy dies in darkness

 

Jeff Bezos was the richest man in the world from 2017 to 2021. Although he has since been bested by Elon Musk, his net worth is still very formidable, at $220.9 billion, making him the 3^rd richest man in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos

The bulk of his fortune comes from Amazon, which he founded in 1994, but he also has other investments. Among those investments is the venerable Washington Post, which was founded in 1877. Since its founding, the Post has won 76 Pulitzer Prizes, second only to the New York Times.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post

Bezos bought the paper in 2013 for $250 million,

Bezos said he has a vision that recreates "the 'daily ritual' of reading the Post as a bundle, not merely a series of individual stories..." He has been described as a "hands-off owner", holding teleconference calls with executive editor Martin Baron every two weeks. Bezos appointed Fred Ryan (founder and CEO of Politico) to serve as publisher and chief executive officer. This signaled Bezos' intent to shift the Post to a more digital focus with a national and global readership.^[

In January 2025, editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned from The Washington Post and published a blog post titled "Why I'm quitting the Washington Post". In it, Telnaes criticizes the paper for allegedly refusing to run a cartoon critical of the relationship between American billionaires and President Donald Trump. Telnaes called the decision "dangerous for a free press". Telnaes' blog post and the nature of her cartoon sparked conversations about the paper's ownership under Bezos.

Her cartoon can be viewed in the link below:

https://anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-quitting-the-washington-post

In February 2025, Bezos announced that the opinion section of the Post will give voice only to opinions that support "personal liberties" and "free markets"; but divergent opinions will not be published by the Post. , The Post’s opinion editor, resigned after trying to persuade Jeff Bezos to reconsider the new direction. Within two days of the announcement, it was reported that over 75,000 digital subscribers had canceled their subscriptions. In March, Ruth Marcus, columnist and editor for The Washington Post's opinion section, resigned after 40 years with the organization when the paper's publisher, Will Lewis, killed a column she wrote that was critical of the new direction

In February 2017, the Post adopted the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" for its masthead.

In February 2025, Jeff Bezos announced that the paper's opinion pages would endorse "personal liberties and free markets" to the exclusion of other views. According to the NPR, the announcement suggested the Post was adopting a libertarian line.

Political endorsements

 Immediately prior to the 2024 election, the editorial board planned to endorse Kamala Harris – but Bezos told them not to. Pressure from its billionaire owner also cause the Los Angeles Times to follow the example set by the Washington Post.

 Ann Telnaes was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1960. She was graduated from Reno High School in Reno, Nevada in 1979. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1973 and is also a former citizen of Norway.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Telnaes

Awards

 Telnaes is the second female cartoonist and one of the few freelancers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. She was the first woman to receive both the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning and the Reuben Award.

She also has won numerous other awards:

·         1996

·         Best Cartoonist, The Population Institute XVII Global Media Awards

·         Best Editorial Cartoonist, Sixth Annual Environmental Media Awards

·         Reuben Award (National Cartoonists Society), finalist

·         1997 — National Headliner Award for Editorial Cartoons

·         2001 — Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning

·         2002 — Maggie Award for Editorial Cartoons, now known as The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) Media Excellence Awards

·         2003 — Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Award (National Press Foundation)

·         2011 — Herblock Prize, finalist

·         2015 — Great Immigrants Award from Carnegie Corporation of New York^[20]

·         2016 — Reuben Award, winner 

·         2021 — EWK Prize, winner

·         2022 — Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary, finalist

·         2023 — Herblock Prize, winner

·         2025 — Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary

As of today, America is still a democracy – but just barely. It would be more accurate to call is an oligarchy, which is why Bennie Sanders and AOC launched an oligarchy route in March.

President-elect Donald Trump has assembled the wealthiest presidential administration in modern history, with at least 13 billionaires set to take on government posts. They include a wrestling magnate, a private space pioneer, a New York real estate developer, the heir to a small appliance empire, and the wealthiest man on the planet -- with several being donors and close personal friends of the incoming president.

In total, the combined net worth of the wealthiest members of his administration could surpass $460 billion, including Department of Government Efficiency co-head Elon Musk -- whose net worth of more than $400 billion exceeds the GDP of mid-sized countries.

Even discounting Musk, Trump's cabinet is still expected to be the wealthiest in history, with reported billionaires Howard Lutnick nominated as commerce secretary, Linda McMahon nominated as education secretary, and Scott Bessent nominated as treasury secretary. Together, Trump's expected cabinet is worth at least $7 billion.

 https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-tapped-unprecedented-13-billionaires-top-administration-roles/story?id=116872968

The cartoon that allowed Ann Tellnaes to received her most recent Pulitzer accurately described the power of oligarchs in today’ society.

 A vibrant democracy needs a free press in order to survive, and the free expression of ideas can be in the form of pictures, written word, or editorial cartoons.

On occasion, those view can be fatal.

Jamal Khassogi worked for the Washington Post, but was murdered by associates of MBS in October of 2018 because he had printed columns that were critical of Saudi Arabia government.

Charlie Hebdo is a publication that has long courted controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders. It published cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 2012, forcing France to temporarily close embassies and schools in more than 20 countries amid fears of reprisals. Its offices were firebombed in November 2011 after publishing a previous caricature of Muhammad on its cover

On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. in Paris, France, the employees of the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo were targeted in a terrorist shooting attack by two French-born Algerian Muslim brothers, Saïd Kouachi [ar; de; fa; fr] and Chérif Kouachi [ar; de; fa; fr]. Armed with rifles and other weapons, the duo murdered 12 people and injured 11 others; they identified themselves as members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the attack

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo_shooting

 As you are aware, the Republicans in Congress, under pressure from Trump are trying to pass a truly horrible budget bill, which is which is why the next vote is scheduled tor 1:00 in the morning. If passed, it would but Medicaid and SNAP, but would also extend the 2017 tax cutes that largely benefitted only the wealthier members of our society. It also raise the deficit. 

Since Republicans in congress don’t want to criticize Trump, it is largely up to members of society to criticize the administration as often – and Harvard’s refusal to give in to blackmail provides just one example of how that can be done.

https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/05/Letter-from-Harvard-President-Alan-M.-Garber-to-the-Honorable-Linda-E.-McMahon.pdf