The latest casualty of Donald Trump’s efforts to silence media criticism is Eduardo Porter, one of the most thoughtful and intelligent critics of his heinous regime.
On Tuesday, Porter wrote his last column for the Washington Post. In a widely circulated email, he explained why he was leaving the Post:
"Jeff Bezos and his new head of Opinion are taking the paper down a path I cannot follow, directed toward the relentless promotion of free markets and personal liberties … I have no idea to what extent this is driven by Mr Bezos’ fear of what Donald Trump could do to his various business interests, most of which are more valuable to him than The Post.”
Well, I do have an idea. Bezos stopped the Post from endorsing Kamala Harris. Amazon made a huge contribution to Trump’s inauguration. And he stood in front of Trump at the president
swearing in.
Why? Because Bezos has founded a bunch of mega-corporations, including Amazon, that depend on Trump’s goodwill and could be in deep trouble if Trump decided to retaliate against Bezos.
It’s much the same story with Stephen Colbert, longtime host of CBS’s The Late Show and the top-rated late-night talkshow host in the US.
On 14 July, Colbert openly criticized CBS’s parent company, Paramount, for its $16m settlement with Trump over his frivolous lawsuit over the routine editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that Trump claimed gave her an unfair advantage in the 2024 election.
