In the last week, two major newspapers announced that they would not be endorsing a presidential candidate this year. The editorial boards of both the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times were preparing endorsements of Kamala Harris. The papers had made such endorsements since 1988 and 2004, respectively. Yet at the last moment, the billionaire owners jumped in to dictate a new line. 

　　Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, bought the Post a decade ago. The South African pharma magnate Patrick Soon-Shiong has owned the Times since 2018. Both moguls presented their purchases as acts of charity that would allow “independent” newspapers to thrive. With the possibility of a second Trump administration looming, however, these capitalists were clearly worried about their government contracts under a vindictive new president. 

　　Reportedly, at least 200,000 Post readers have canceled their subscriptions in protest. But this isn’t just “self-sabotage,” as the New York Times called it (another papier owned by billionaires, incidentally). This is simply the way capitalist media work — it’s just usually there are a few more layers of obfuscation. Over the centuries, bourgeois newspapers built up elaborate fictions to hide their class interests. Owners would present themselves as disinterested patrons who would never (never!) dream of interfering with objective reporting. “Democracy dies in darkness,” as the Post continues to claim. 

　　This myth of a “free press” was only a ruse to better sell capitalist class interests as the general interests of society. The bourgeoisie has manifold ways to control the media. Advertising, for example, has always allowed the rich to influence what gets printed by offering or withholding their sponsorship — editors are never not aware of this dependency. Media businesses are part of capitalist economies, and while they might get into fights with individual capitalists, they protect the capitalist class as a whole. Editors reproduce the ideology of the bourgeoisie, often without the need for direct threats, orders, or corruption.  

　　Capitalist newspapers have therefore never been free. As a young Karl Marx put it, “the first freedom of the press is not to be a business.” 

　　Now, in the time of capitalist decay, all pretenses of propriety are out the window. Billionaires no longer have any interest in working with supposedly “independent” editorial boards — they are simply demanding their own megaphones. This is most obvious in new media like Twitter, where there is no claim to objectivity. Instead, billionaires just blast their political preferences into our screens with no mediation. If Elon Musk is getting into far-right conspiracy theories, then he makes sure we all see it. 

　　As V.I. Lenin wrote more than a century ago, “For the bourgeoisie, freedom of the press mean[s] freedom for the rich to publish and for the capitalists to control the newspapers.” During the Russian Revolution, Lenin asked “What kind of freedom do these newspapers want? Isn’t it freedom to buy rolls of newsprint and hire crowds of pen-pushers?” This is why journalism, under capitalism, is fundamentally corrupt — whoever pays the piper calls the tune. 

　　This is why the workers’ movement, throughout its history, has always strived to build up an independent socialist press. (A workers’ press, of course, can be corrupted by the capitalists too, which is why we must struggle for political independence from all wings of the capitalist class and from their state.) This is why we publish Left Voice as part of an international network of socialist online newspapers. Our publications are financed by workers and written by workers, with no investors, advertisers, or other forms of capitalist control.  

　　During the Russian Revolution, Lenin proposed a simple measure to make the press truly democratic: put the means of mass communication under the democratic control of workers’ councils: 

　　One can hold elections to find out the strength of each party and allocate the technical resources according to the number of votes cast. This will prevent capitalists alone enjoying freedom of the press and flooding the villages with their cheap newspapers. We must get away from the notion that a press dependent on capital can be free. 

　　In other words, democracy requires a truly democratic press — one under the control of journalists and readers. Why should Jeff Bezos decide what is written in the Post? That also means we should put Twitter and other social media companies under workers’ control. 

　　Capitalism will never be democratic. Real democracy requires the expropriation of the big capitalists. 

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  LiuTingting 

　　From:https://www.leftvoice.org/jeff-bezos-reminds-us-under-capitalism-freedom-of-the-press-is-just-billionaires-freedom-to-control-the-press/（2024-10-30）