WaPo Kills Anti-Musk Ad

 

WaPo Kills Anti-Musk Ad 

 

The Washington Post won’t say why

it canceled a six-figure ad buy calling

for Elon Musk to be fired, but it’s likely

the same reason the Post insisted

Musk wasn’t Nazi-saluting on Inau

guration Day, (FAIR.org, 1/23/25) and

why the paper killed its endorsement

of Kamala Harris: because that’s what

Post owner Jeff Bezos wants.

The bright red ad, from civic groups

Common Cause and the Southern

Poverty Law Center Action Fund, was

to wrap around the front and back

pages of print editions of the Post

going to subscribers on Capitol Hill,

the Pentagon and the White House,

ensuring top officials would lay eyes

on it. Featuring a laughing Musk

hovering over the White House, the

ad asks, “Who’s running this country:

Donald Trump or Elon Musk?”

Even though the groups had signed

a $115,000 contract with the Post, the

paper canceled the wrap at the 11th

hour. Tellingly, in providing guidance

to Common Cause on how to comply

with the Post’s ad standards, the pa

per sent a sample ad paid for by a Big

Oil group. “It was a ‘thank you Donald

Trump’ piece of art,” Common Cause

president Virginia Kase Solomón told

The Hill (2/16/25).

 

The Musk Coup as

‘Penchant for Dabbling’ 

 

An Associated Press story (2/4/25) on

Elon Musk’s “Grip on Federal Govern

ment” might seem to convey concern,

but look closer: Musk is matter-of-factly

described as a “special government

employee, which subjects him to less

stringent rules on ethics and financial

disclosures than other workers.” He’s

also described as “in charge of retool

ing the federal government.”

The debate, AP tells us, is between

Republicans who “defend Musk as

simply carrying out Trump’s slash

and-burn campaign promises,” and

Democrats who, “for their part,

accused Musk of leading a coup from

within the government by amassing

unaccountable and illegal power.” 

Tomato, to-mah-to.

Musk locking federal workers out

of internal systems, denying them

access to their own personnel files:

Why, that’s just “Musk’s penchant

for dabbling.” He learned to code as

a child in South Africa, you see, and

“now Musk is popping open the hood

on the federal government like it’s

one of his cars or rockets.”

If you rely on reporting from nomi-

nally neutral outlets like Associated

Press, you might imagine that un-

elected billionaires tinkering with

democratic processes is not a concern

for regular folks, but only for partisan

Democrats.

 

 

One of the few outlets naming "ethnic

cleansing," The Hill (2/5/25) quoted Rep.

Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.): Trump "can only

spew this fanatical bullshit because of

bipartisan support in Congress for fund

ing genocide and ethnic cleansing.

 

Failing to Label Ethnic Cleansing 

 

In February, President Donald Trump

said that the US will “take over the

Gaza Strip” and “own” it for the

“long-term” (AP, 2/5/25), and that its

Palestinian inhabitants will be “per

manently” exiled (AP, 2/4/25). Human

Rights Watch (2/5/25) said that, if

Trump’s plan were implemented, it

would “amount to an alarming escala

tion of forced displacement and ethnic

cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.”

From February 4, the day that he

first made his remarks, through

February 12, the New York Times,

Wall Street Journal and Washing

ton Post ran 145 combined pieces

with the words “Gaza” and “Trump.”

Of these, only 19 contained variations

on the phrase “ethnic cleansing.” In

other words, 87% of the articles these

outlets published on Trump’s plan to

ethnically cleanse Gaza chose not to

call it ethnic cleansing.

 

Bezos-owned Amazon raked in $11.6 billion

in subsidies as of Jan. 31.—Good Jobs First.

 

Bezos Banishes Dissent

from WaPo 

 

Oligarch Jeff Bezos announced to his

Washington Post employees that

the paper’s opinion section will now

focus on advancing his “two pillars:

personal liberties and free markets.”

Dissenting voices will be barred:

“Viewpoints opposing those pillars

will be left to be published by others,”

Bezos said. When editorial page editor

David Shipley—who had previously

proved pliable enough to spike the

paper’s endorsement of Kamala Har

ris, and a cartoon depicting Bezos and

other tech executives groveling before

Trump (FAIR.org, 1/7/25)—objected,

he was dismissed.

Fellow oligarch Elon Musk quickly

offered a “Bravo, Jeff Bezos!” on X

(2/26/25), and by evening, Bezos was

dining with President Trump.

“When billionaires talk about ‘per

sonal liberties,’” media critic Parker

Molloy (Present Age, 2/26/25) noted,

“they’re usually thinking about their

personal liberty to avoid taxation

and regulation.” Bezos’ fidelity to his

other pillar, “free markets,” is no less

questionable, considering his compa

nies hoover up billions of dollars in

government contracts, are massively

subsidized, and Amazon, which Bezos

founded, is an egregious antitrust

violator (The Nation, 11/10/23). 

 

Bezos-owned Amazon raked in $11.6 billion

in subsidies as of Jan. 31.—Good Jobs First.

 

 

 

ReidOut Out at MSNBC 

 

Continuing the tradition of MSNBC

stifling its most progressive voices in a

quest for centrist approbation (FAIR.

org, 8/28/21), the new leadership at the

cable news network announced the

cancellation of the ReidOut, the political

talk show hosted by Joy Reid since 2020.

The ReidOut has often provided

information and perspectives missing

from other corporate media platforms.

For example, a FAIR study (8/15/24)

of Gaza protest coverage found that

Reid’s show was the only one of

nine TV discussion shows studied to

include pro-Palestinian student voices

in coverage of the student solidarity

encampments. When New York’s skies

turned orange amid historic Canadian

wildfires in the summer of 2023, Reid

was one of the few who called out

the role of fossil fuels in promoting

climate disruption (FAIR.org, 7/18/23). 

 

Trans Coverage

Without Trans People 

 

GLAAD surveyed day-one stories on

Trump’s anti-trans executive orders

across six major media outlets. Only 13

of 35 quoted a trans person; only six

of these included facts and context to

counter White House rhetoric. GLAAD

noted one highlight: “Stories from

the Associated Press were uniformly

inclusive of the LGBTQ community.

 

Extra!

The Newsletter of FAIR—The Media Watch Group April 2025