The winner of the US presidential election will owe their success to a tiny number of voters in a small number of swing states. With such narrow margins at play, will the candidates also partly owe their success or failure to some of the world’s richest men, whose wealth has bought them influence over those few voters? The billionaire owners of the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong, respectively, may have some soul-searching to do when they finally realise the enormous responsibility that comes with media ownership. The same goes for X owner Elon Musk – although whether he has a soul to search is less clear.
The Washington Post’s own journalists have reported that Bezos directed the paper not to endorse either candidate despite a leader column already having been written in Kamala Harris’s favour. Bezos defended the move as a “principled decision” to prevent the “perception of non-independence”. Staff and readers claimed it was to protect his business interests under a Trump presidency. Soon-Shiong said the LA Times would not make an endorsement to avoid adding to division in the country. Trump’s conclusion was that “they’re saying this Democrat’s no good… And they think I’m doing a great job. They just don’t want to say it.” Meanwhile, Musk constantly pushes anti-Harris and pro-Trump material on his own social media platform.
Content from our partners
