<nettime> Amazon.com ... Bezos... and The Washington Post

[Frederick FN Noronha ààààààààà àààààààà *ÙØÙØØÙÙ ÙÙØÙÙÙØ <fredericknoronha@gmail.com>]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AevzYhuB920&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL50BDB9BCCFAF09CA

http://www.democracynow.org - The Washington Post announced on Monday the
paper had been sold to Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos for $250
million. Bezos, one of the world's wealthiest men, now controls one of the
most powerful newspapers in the country. Some critics of the sale have
cited Bezos' close ties to the U.S. government. In 2010, Amazon pulled the
plug on hosting the WikiLeaks website under heavy political pressure.
Earlier this year, Amazon inked a $600 million cloud computing deal with
the CIA. Independent booksellers and publishers have also long complained
about Amazon's business practices.

Watch Part 1 of this discussion: http://youtu.be/Mh3e5KcYeaQ

Democracy Now! hosts a roundtable on the history of Amazon and the future
of the newspaper industry. "Monopoly newspapers, especially The Washington
Post in the nation's capital, while it might not be a commercially viable
undertaking, it still has tremendous political power," says Robert
McChesney, co-founder of Free Press, "a plaything for these billionaires
that they can then use aggressively to promote their own politics." Media
critic Jeff Cohen notes that while The Washington Post notably published
reports on Watergate and the Pentagon Papers decades ago, he thinks
concerns that Bezos will ruin their journalistic tradition is unfounded,
saying that in recent years, "The Washington Post has really been the
newspaper of the bipartisan consensus." We also speak to Dennis Johnson,
publisher of Melville Books. "Amazon is a company that feels no pain.
They've, as far as I can tell, never made money. ... So, when you see him
taking over The Washington Post and you wonder is he going to be able to
monetize it, is he going to make it profitable, he probably doesn't care,"
Johnson says.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AevzYhuB920&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL50BDB9BCCFAF09CA
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