Dead Mall Syndrome?

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

Speaking of AMZN, this is one of the best lectures I've listened to in quite a while:

Robert Steele at Amazon:

http://youtu.be/l9eaAYvDiXo

Sadly, a friend of mine I mentored at Amazon in the early days is now quite senior in distribution/logistics.

He's been spending a fair bit of time lately lobbying Members of Congress.

That place went from being the Rebel Alliance to The Borg.

[don]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

. . . lobbying Members of Congress. That place went from being the Rebel Alliance to The Borg.

Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos, who bought the Washington Post In August last year, plans to beef up the newspaper by increasing its budget and adding dozens of editorial employees.

The Post plans to immediately hire five new politics reporters, and photo editors, data visualization specialists, news desk staff and web designers.

Members of Post management met with Bezos in Bellevue late last year to present the expansion plan, and officials said the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) CEO stressed growing the paper, and that included concentration on the digital arena.

American journalism has entered highly dangerous terrain.

A tip-off is that the Washington Post refuses to face up to a conflict of interest involving Jeff Bezos -- who's now the sole owner of the powerful newspaper at the same time he remains Amazon's CEO and main stakeholder.

The Post is supposed to expose CIA secrets. But Amazon is under contract to keep them. Amazon has a new $600 million "cloud" computing deal with the CIA.

The situation is unprecedented. But in an email exchange early this month, Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron told me that the newspaper doesn't need to routinely inform readers of the CIA-Amazon-Bezos ties when reporting on the CIA. He wrote that such in-story acknowledgment would be "far outside the norm of disclosures about potential conflicts of interest at media organizations."

But there isn't anything normal about the new situation. As I wrote to Baron, "few journalists could have anticipated ownership of the paper by a multibillionaire whose outside company would be so closely tied to the CIA."

(of course the Agency has 'owned' dozens of newspapers, all or most abroad, through third party cutouts for decades.)

[Woodsman]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

The Post is supposed to expose CIA secrets. But Amazon is under contract to keep them. Amazon has a new $600 million "cloud" computing deal with the CIA.

The situation is unprecedented. But in an email exchange early this month, Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron told me that the newspaper doesn't need to routinely inform readers of the CIA-Amazon-Bezos ties when reporting on the CIA. He wrote that such in-story acknowledgment would be "far outside the norm of disclosures about potential conflicts of interest at media organizations."

But there isn't anything normal about the new situation. As I wrote to Baron, "few journalists could have anticipated ownership of the paper by a multibillionaire whose outside company would be so closely tied to the CIA."

(of course the Agency has 'owned' dozens of newspapers, all or most abroad, through third party cutouts for decades.)

I don't believe it is unprecedented at all. Look, The Post has long been owned and managed by very wealthy people with ties to intelligence. I refer here to the cozy relationship between the Graham family and CIA, as well as Ben Bradlee's personal history with intelligence:

When Newsweek was purchased by the Washington Post Company, publisher Philip L. Graham was informed by Agency officials that the CIA occasionally used the magazine for cover purposes, according to CIA sources. "It was widely known that Phil Graham was somebody you could get help from," said a former deputy director of the Agency. Frank Wisner dealt with him."

Carl Bernstein

Moreover, the intelligence agencies have since their inception sought to influence and control the media. I refer here to the infamous, operation MOCKINGBIRD:

Wisner, deputy director of the CIA from 1950 until shortly before his suicide in 1965, was the Agency's premier orchestrator of "black" operations, including many in which journalists were involved. Wisner liked to boast of his "mighty Wurlitzer," a wondrous propaganda instrument he built, and played, with help from the press.)

again, Carl Bernstein

I would argue that the while paper was once a mere contractor of CIA, with Bezos' purchase it has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the agency. Here is the gist of Bernstein's article:

The history of the CIA’s involvement with the American press continues to be shrouded by an official policy of obfuscation and deception for the following principal reasons:

■ The use of journalists has been among the most productive means of intelligence‑gathering employed by the CIA. Although the Agency has cut back sharply on the use of reporters since 1973 primarily as a result of pressure from the media), some journalist‑operatives are still posted abroad.

■ Further investigation into the matter, CIA officials say, would inevitably reveal a series of embarrassing relationships in the 1950s and 1960s with some of the most powerful organizations and individuals in American journalism.

Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the Agency were Williarn Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Henry Luce of Tirne Inc., Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the New York Times, Barry Bingham Sr. of the LouisviIle Courier‑Journal, and James Copley of the Copley News Service. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include the American Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps‑Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald and the oldSaturday Evening Post and New York Herald‑Tribune.

By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc.

Carl Bernstein, THE CIA AND THE MEDIA - How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

...The Post has long been owned and managed by very wealthy people with ties to intelligence...

The former owner, Katherine Graham, had a funeral fit for a queen.
All the most powerful politicians active and retired were there.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were pallbearers

[don]

Re: Dead Mall Syndrome?

Agree to all of that. The remarkable thing with Bezo is that it's all up front. Subtlety has been outsourced, apparently . . .