Billionaires and the media they own.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong.
- South African billionaire. Trump lover. Owns the LA Times. Platformed by Tucker Carlson.
Bezos
- owns the Washington Post
The LA Times' billionaire owner is interfering with its reporting. No surprise. He associated with Trump during Trump's presidency.
"Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong ordered the paper‘s editorial board—which has solely endorsed Democratic candidates since it resumed making presidential endorsements in 2008—not to endorse a presidential candidate this year despite its plans to do so, executive editor Terry Tang told the staff earlier this month."
The lead editor just resigned.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is a Trump supporter as noted in that article.
“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent,” Garza told me in a phone conversation. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”
Oh look at that. The billionaire is a garbage human. No kidding.
He's South African too that's interesting.
Soon-Shiong did not push forward with FDA approval as the agreement dictated, and instead allowed critical patents and deadlines lapse, presumably due to his financial interest in another drug that would compete with Cynviloq. This "catch and kill" method of eliminating competition follows a pattern of questionable business practices by Soon-Shiong,[45] and claims of "looting" by the celebrity actress and musician Cher.[46][47]
Washington Post (Bezos owned)
Oh look Bezos doing it too
Washington Post (Bezos owned)
"But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/26/washington-post-endorses-kamala-harris-satire/
Then on Saturday, Soon-Shiong's daughter, 31-year-old Oxford University student Nika Soon-Shiong, threw another position into the mix. She claims that her family decided as a unit not to allow the paper to issue a recommendation for who is most fit to occupy the highest office in the land due to concerns over US support of Israel in the war in Gaza.
He told me it was merely my “opinion” that Trump lies more than other politicians. I pushed back, noting that the depths of his dishonesty have been well-documented by fact-based news organizations. Soon-Shiong didn’t apparently appreciate that. He scolded me for making “a statement.”
By this winter, the professional warmth between the two men had chilled. Their relationship was strained in part by an incident in December when Dr. Soon-Shiong tried to dissuade Mr. Merida from pursuing a story about a wealthy California doctor and his dog, three people with knowledge said.
The doctor was an acquaintance of Dr. Soon-Shiong’s, the people said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/business/media/los-angeles-times-owner-editor-clash.html
Oh by the way he's from South Africa and the billionaires from that country do have a particular bent, don't they.
He is being sued by people who sold him shares, who are saying he didn't tell them that the drug the company was developing at the time had shown promise and he therefore got the shares at an unfairly low value.
Oh here we go: he bought the paper to deliberately propagandize it.
Here he is squashing a whole series that the paper planned to do on Trump
https://www.thewrap.com/la-times-case-against-trump-kamala-endorsement-canceled/
This useless individual is now saying he's got a COVID blocking vaccine and being platformed by Tucker Carlson.
Also, saying he's been suppressed, the usual defence for the right-wing cranknut.
What a total farce.
These people own your media, folks. Own it all.
@jmcrookston Wait... what... Cher is tied up in all this?
@MelMScow she says she got tricked by him into selling shares at undervalue. I suspect he bought the company and she was a shareholder, but was not directly solicited. But yeah, she sued him. Not sure if this quote is about a different lawsuit.
@jmcrookston Ahh, so it's about profits not ethics. Makes sense (she said dejectedly).