The Washington Post, Bezos and Amazon: Spokespersons for the Empire
One of the most amazing lines ever written in an American newspaper was just published in The Washington Post.
Or perhaps Amazoning lines might work.
Our new Secretary of Defense hit pause yesterday on the here-to-for coming award of a sole source $10 Billion DOD contract to develop what I have been writing about as a “Combat Cloud.”
This article is not about the highly possible shenanigans to rig a contract by scoping the requirements early.
The coming review will hopefully take all that into account, in addition to the normal administration process review.
If there is an illegally gamed “cloud” over the requirements in the front end often the results are essentially hidden in plain sight with the targeted winner being a foregone conclusion.
After all, when you set the question, the answer becomes self-evident.
The Post comment in question can be put into context by looking at how NPR handled the same development.
According to NPR:
“Pentagon Pauses $10 Billion Contract That Embroiled Amazon In Controversy”
Critics have also accused the Pentagon and Amazon of having an unfairly cozy relationship, pointing to several Defense Department employees who have done work for Amazon’s cloud business, AWS.
Now let’s review the Washington Post’s treatment of the same exact story:
After Trump cites Amazon concerns, Pentagon reexamines $10 billion JEDI cloud contract process
The White House has instructed newly installed Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper to reexamine the awarding of the military’s massive cloud-computing contract because of concerns that the deal would go to Amazon, officials close to the decision-making process said.
The president has called the news organization the “Amazon Washington Post,” while accusing it of publishing “fake news” and being a “lobbyist newspaper” for the company.
Get ready here it comes a line that will live in newspaper infamy;
Amazon did not return a request for comment.
The two reporter’s covering the story work for Jeff Bezos who owns the Washington Post and he also owns Amazon.
However, the reader is left with the impression that The Washington Post and Amazon are two entirely separate and independent organizations rather than being parts of the Bezos empire.
As the readers of an earlier Defense.info piece will note I previously pointed out the following;
On July 18, 2019, Jeff Bezos’s ethically conflicted Washington Post put out another negative report about President Trump, this time in his capacity as commander in chief, challenging a $10 billion contract for essentially a 21st century military combat cloud.
I am not being unfair. The Washington Post, now owned by the Bezos Amazon business empire, and has been known to simply publish its owner’s press releases as hard news.
So let the reader decide if The Washington Post Editors and reporters who have had not difficulty publishing their owner’s press releases unedited as hard news, why is their owner allowed to get away with essentially “no comment?”
This story is “people’s exhibit A” of what President Trump correctly called a “lobbyist newspaper.”
Where is the Columbia Journalism ethical review when needed?
This is a total PR public sham by The Washington Post reporters and Editors to signal independence where it doesn’t exist except when the owner wants it to become murky and confusing.”