The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-02)

A4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, MAY 2 , 2022

Marc Benioff (No. 309) bought

Time magazine in 20 18.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates

(No. 4) has spent tens of millions

of dollars through his foundation

to directly fund journalism at

outlets such as NPR that cover

issues he cares about, such as

health and the environment. Oth-

ers have funded more narrow

publishing efforts. The wealthy

Chinese exile Guo Wengui has

worked on media ventures with

Stephen K. Bannon, who was an

adviser to President Donald

Tr ump.

But these are merely the most

recent forays by the uber-wealthy

into traditional media owner-

ship. Rupert Murdoch (No. 85)

made his first purchase in the

role as donors to political cam-

paigns and organizations. Zuck-

erberg spent $419.5 million to

fund election administrators dur-

ing the 2020 elections, sparking

outrage among Republicans and

cheers among Democrats. “I

agree with those who say that

government should have provid-

ed these funds, not private citi-

zens,” Zuckerberg said in a state-

ment at the time.

Many of his billionaire peers

have been expanding invest-

ments into journalism and pun-

ditry, aiming in many cases to

shape voter understanding of

their place in the world. Laurene

Powell Jobs (No. 111) bought a

majority stake in the Atlantic in

20 17. Salesforce chief executive

garchs and the American people

is warranted,” said Kara Freder-

ick, director of tech policy at the

Heritage Foundation, who has

been critical of the European

approach but supports more reg-

ulation in the United States. “We

can strip immunity from tech

companies if they censor political

or other views protected by the

constitution.”

Ben Wizner, director of the

American Civil Liberties Union’s

speech, privacy and technology

project, said the key challenge

presented by individual control

of social media and journalism is,

at root, about scale.

“We are talking about a small

handful of people who now exer-

cise extraordinary control over

the boundaries of our discourse,”

Wizner said. “The importance for

media and journalism is that

there be a diverse ecosystem that

represents the interests of many,

not just of the few.”

Of course, billionaires with an

ax to grind don’t need media

ownership to change the infor-

mation landscape. PayPal co-

founder and early Facebook in-

vestor Peter Thiel (No. 55 2), who

has given millions to GOP candi-

dates this cycle, famously ran the

gossip site Gawker out of busi-

ness by secretly funding Hulk

Hogan’s lawsuit against the site

after it had published a recording

of Hogan having sex with a

friend’s estranged wife.

For his part, Musk appears to

be enjoying the public focus on

his enormous new power. He

recently tweeted an insult direct-

ed at fellow billionaire Gates, in

apparent retaliation for Gates

having shorted Tesla’s stock.

Musk posted a photo of Gates

wearing a blue polo shirt

stretched across his stomach next

to an emoji of a pregnant man,

and captioned the images with a

crass observation about Gates’s

girth.

When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-

Cortez (D-N.Y.) posted a tweet

Friday criticizing when “some bil-

lionaire with an ego problem uni-

laterally controls a massive com-

munication platform and skews

it,” Musk responded by suggest-

ing the congresswoman had a

romantic interest in him.

“Stop hitting on me, I’m really

shy,” he tweeted.

Ocasio-Cortez replied, “I was

talking about Zuckerberg but ok.”

United States in 1976 when he

bought the New York Post before

launching Fox News and expand-

ing to the Wall Street Journal,

while Bloomberg created Bloom-

berg LP in 1981.

Both Murdoch and Bloomberg

have invested heavily in opinion-

driving journalism, through Fox

News and Bloomberg Opinion,

respectively. They follow in the

tradition that emerged in the last

century, when wealthy families

and scions, such as William Ran-

dolph Hearst and the Sulzberger

family that owns the New York

Times, came to dominate the

largest newsgathering organiza-

tions.

The role of social media net-

works, which have largely re-

placed print newspapers as the

way most Americans get their

information, has complicated the

issue, in part because so few

networks are so dominant. A 20 19

poll by the Pew Research Center

found 62 percent of Americans

felt that social media companies

have “too much control over the

news people see.”

Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth

political scientist who has stud-

ied misinformation and its effect

on democracy, said social media

allows Zuckerberg and Musk to

have “greater influence over the

flow of information than has been

possible in human history.”

Of particular concern to Nyhan

is the lack of transparency over

the way these platforms control

the information on them. Demo-

crats and Republicans have re-

cently expressed interest in in-

creased antitrust enforcement, as

well as new legal restrictions that

condition the immunity social

networks enjoy from l awsuits on

their agreement to properly mod-

erate debate. There are, naturally,

deep divisions about what that

moderation should look like.

In the European Union, law-

makers have been pushing for-

ward laws that require social net-

works to crack down on speech

illegal in Europe that is generally

protected by the U. S. Constitu-

tion. The proposed laws also re-

quire algorithmic transparency

and give consumers more control

over how their own information

is used.

“The best way to articulate this

is: A recalibration between these

big tech companies and the oli-

“I don’t think it’s a great com-

mentary on the state of affairs

that we are relying on a billion-

aire oligarch to save free speech

online,” said Jon Schweppe, p ol-

icy director of the American Prin-

ciples Project, a conservative

think tank pushing for less mod-

eration of conservative views on

social networks. “It’s unfortunate

that we need to have a hero. But

we do.”

Musk has not been specific

about what he plans to do with

Twitter, although he has dropped

a steady stream of hints, includ-

ing his objection to private “cen-

sorship that goes far beyond the

law.” He h as suggested new mone-

tization strategies and less reli-

ance on advertising, while shar-

ing memes that irreverently de-

scribe Twitter’s “left wing bias”

and dismisses as extreme the

views of “woke” liberals.

“The far left hates everyone,

including themselves!” he tweet-

ed Friday. “But I’m no fan of the

far right either. Let’s have less

hate and more love.”

Ironically, his moves have been

endorsed by former Twitter chief

executive Jack Dorsey (No. 396 on

the Forbes list) — one of the

“overlords” who Cruz attacked —

who has argued that freeing the

company from the burdens of a

public company will allow it to

better serve as a public utility.

“Taking it back from Wall

Street is the correct first step,” he

tweeted Monday. “ I trust [Musk’s]

mission to extend the light of

consciousness.”

Activists on the left, who have a

different vision of public square

moderation, have scoffed at the

notion that any individual —

White men who dwell in bubbles

of limitless luxury, no less —

should be able to filter informa-

tion for the country’s voters.

“Even if Elon Musk was the

smartest person on earth, had the

best heart, had been touched by

God, I wouldn’t want him to have

that much power,” said Robert

McChesney, a professor at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign, who has advocated

against concentration in media

ownership. “It is antithetical to

democratic political theory.”

Other billionaires, in the

meantime, have been branching

out to fund broader parts of the

nation’s democratic process,

moving beyond even their outsize

of the nation’s top three social
media platforms: Facebook, Ins-
tagram and Facebook Messenger.
The information that courses
over these networks is increas-
ingly produced by publications
controlled by fellow billionaires
and other wealthy dynasties, who
have filled the void of the collaps-
ing profit-making journalism
market with varying combina-
tions of self-interest and altru-
ism. It is a situation that has
alarmed policy experts at both
ends of the increasingly vicious
ideological and partisan divides.
“This is almost becoming like
junior high school for billion-
aires,” Brookings Institution
scholar Darrell M. West said of
the new information magnates.
“The issue is we are now very
dependent on the personal
whims of rich people, and there
are very few checks and balances
on them. They could lead us in a
liberal, conservative or libertari-
an direction, and there is very
little we can do about that.”
Nearly all of these executives,
including Musk, claim benevo-
lent motivations, and many, like
Bezos, who owns The Post, have
established firewalls of editorial
independence that protect
against their direct influence on
articles such as this one. But the
power to fund, shape and hire
leaders that decide what is shared
and what is covered has nonethe-
less become the subject of its own
political conflict. Partisans find
themselves celebrating the au-
tonomy of the rich men who they
see as serving their interests,
while simultaneously objecting
to the unchecked power of those
who don’t.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) — who
has for months railed against the
dangers of what he has called
“overlords in Silicon Valley” cen-
soring conservative news and
views — called Musk’s Twitter
purchase this week “without ex-
aggeration the most important
development for free speech in
decades.” Liberal activists and
even some Twitter employees,
meanwhile, reacted with fears
that more disinformation and
hate speech, which is largely pro-
tected under federal law, might
soon be coursing at greater vol-
ume through the nation’s i ntellec-
tual bloodstream.

BILLIONAIRES FROM A

Public square increasingly shaped by billionaires and other wealthy dynasties

BY DAVID WEIGEL

nebraska city, neb. — Former
president Donald Tr ump on Sun-
day made a closing pitch for a
Republican gubernatorial candi-
date who has been accused of
sexually assaulting multiple
women, stepping deeper into a
primary that has divided Repub-
licans i n this staunchly c onserva-
tive state.
Tr ump appeared at a rally in
Greenwood with Charles Herb-
ster, a businessman who has
advised the former president on
agricultural policy and has do-
nated to his campaigns. The visit
came after a recent Nebraska
Examiner report in which eight
women, including a state senator
speaking on the record, accused
Herbster of touching them inap-
propriately. Last week, another
one of the eight women alleged
on the record that Herbster had
groped her. He has denied the
accusations.
According to state Sen. Julie
Slama (R), Herbster reached up
her skirt without her consent
and touched her inappropriately
as she walked by during a local
Republican fundraiser in a
crowded ballroom in 2019. Eliza-
beth Todsen, a former aide to a
state senator, said Herbster
grabbed her buttocks after stop-
ping to greet her table at the
same event. Multiple w omen t old
the Examiner that Herbster
touched them inappropriately
when they greeted him or posed
for a photo.
Both Trump and Herbster
sought to dismiss the allegations
on Sunday, taking a defiant pos-
ture without discussing the accu-
sations in specific terms. The
former president called Herbster
a “very good man” who had been
“maligned.” Trump said Herbster
was “innocent” of what he called
“despicable charges.”
“I defend people when I know
they’re good,” Tr ump said. “A lot
of people, they look at you and
say: You don’t have to do it, sir. I
defend my friends.”
The former president invited
Herbster onstage during his re-
marks. The gubernatorial candi-
date used his time to talk about
being one of Tr ump’s earliest
supporters in 2016.
Tr ump, who has faced and
denied multiple allegations of
harassment and sexual assault,

has backed other c andidates who

have been accused of sexual

misconduct or domestic violence

and denied the allegations.

They include Herschel Walker,

a U. S. Senate candidate in Geor-

gia who has been accused of

threatening the lives of two

women, as well as Sean Parnell,

who ended his U. S. Senate cam-

paign in Pennsylvania last year

amid domestic abuse a llegations,

and Roy Moore, a 2017 candidate

for U.S. Senate in Alabama who

was accused by two women of

initiating unwanted sexual en-

counters when Moore was in his

30 s and they were 16 and 14.

Speaking onstage before

Tr ump spoke, Herbster briefly

and obliquely addressed the alle-

gations, saying that the “political

establishment” didn’t want him

to win. “They are trying to scare

me out of this race and it’s not

going to happen,” Herbster said.

“We are going to take back

Nebraska.”

He compared his vision for

“making Nebraska great again”

to Tr ump’s a pproach to t he presi-

dency, rolling up his sleeves to

take on illegal immigration and

defend religious freedom. “This

is my show,” Herbster added.

Tr ump’s presence in the Ne-

braska race has pitted him

against outgoing Gov. Pete Rick-

etts (R), who has said that Herb-

ster would be a “terrible gover-

nor” and supports a rival candi-

date, University of Nebraska re-

gent Jim Pillen.

The sexual assault allegations

against Herbster have become a

contentious topic in the primary.

Herbster has suggested that

Ricketts was behind them, which

the governor has denied. Taking

a stance similar to Tr ump, Herb-

ster has argued that both of them

were falsely accused for political

reasons.

“It’s a playbook from the past,”

Herbster told former Tr ump ad-

viser Stephen K. Bannon on his

“War Room” podcast. “Look w hat

they did to Clarence Thomas.

Look what they did to Donald J.

Tr ump. Look what they did to

Brett M. Kavanaugh. Now, it’s

Charles W. Herbster.”

Tr ump hinted at a personal

reason for campaigning with

Herbster — trying to prove, once

again, that the candidates he

endorsed were winners. He men-

tioned his preferred candidates

in other states including Ohio,

which is holding a Republican

Senate primary Tuesday. Trump

recently endorsed author and

venture capitalist J.D. Vance but

on Sunday appeared to momen-

tarily conflate his name with

Josh Mandel, a rival Republican

candidate.

“We’ve endorsed J.P. , right?

J.D. Mandel,” said Tr ump, who in

the same rally mocked President

Biden for stumbling over his

words.

After telling the crowd about

how many of his preferred candi-

dates had won their primaries,

Tr ump pointed to slides pro-

duced by his pollster, McLaugh-

lin & Associates, lingering on

numbers that showed more than

60 percent of his voters “strong-

ly” supported him.

“Strongly support means you

can do almost anything, and

they’ll support you,” Tr ump said.

Herbster tapped former top

Tr ump White House official Kel-

lyanne Conway to help with his

campaign last year, along with

former Tr ump campaign manag-

er Corey Lewandowski. In De-

cember, he parted ways with

Lewandowski, when the adviser

was accused of harassment.

Tr ump had been scheduled to

rally with Herbster on Friday but

the event was delayed because of

weather. The Sunday rally in-

cluded two conservative activists

who h ave falsely claimed that the

2020 election was stolen from

Tr ump: MyPillow CEO Mike Lin-

dell and Republican activist Da-

vid Bossie, the producer of a

documentary titled “Rigged.”

Tr ump endorsed Herbster last

year, stoking tensions among

local Republicans, starting with

Ricketts, who had urged the

former president not to get be-

hind the candidate.

The allegations against Herb-

ster threw more uncertainty into

what pollsters see as a three-way

race between him, Pillen and

state Sen. Brett Lindstrom (R),

with state Sen. Theresa Thibo-

deau (R) not far behind. While

Tr ump won Nebraska by 19

points in 2020, and remained

overwhelmingly popular with

Republicans in the state, some

primary voters said that they

were not sold on supporting

Herbster.

The Herbster campaign,

which did not respond to a

request for comment, has had

other problems. Last July, Herb-

ster’s initial running mate, Thi-

bodeau, quit the ticket, saying

that the candidate was “chaotic

and disorganized” and not ready

for the top state job.

“I never saw that there was

any real desire to learn Nebraska

or learn Nebraska policy,” Thibo-

deau, who went on to enter the

gubernatorial primary, s aid in a n

interview. “Those leadership

characteristics just aren’t there.”

Herbster, who has spent $

million of his own wealth on his

campaign, was seen to b e leading

a tight race when Slama accused

him of groping her in 2019.

Herbster sued for defamation,

saying that the “false accusations

and attacks on my character”

had been “part of a greater

scheme” to defeat him.

“We will show this lawsuit for

what it is: a frivolous and bad

faith attempt to bully a sexual

assault victim into silence,” an

attorney for Slama said in a

statement provided to The Wash-

ington Post.

At a parade in Nebraska City

on Saturday, H erbster raced back

and forth across the route, shak-

ing hands and telling one family

not to believe “all the crap” they

were hearing.

Some voters grabbed signs for

the Herbster campaign, with the

words “Trump endorsed” under

his n ame. Many were skeptical of

the allegations against Herbster.

“He’s the best suited for the

job,” said Terry Coen, 36. “I don’t

really think it matters. I don’t

think there’s any body to it.” His

wife Summer, 43, said, “People

are going to say whatever they’re

going to say, no matter who it is.”

Republican opponents have

not c alled on Herbster t o quit the

race, but they have criticized his

response to the allegations. In a

brief interview, Pillen dismissed

his rival’s suggestion that he is

simply the latest in a line of

conservatives to face false accu-

sations. “Since I’m a veterinarian

and pig farmer,” said Pillen, “I’d

call that hogwash.”

Lindstrom said that he did not

believe in a “rush to judgment,”

but was “disgusted” by the accu-

sations. He knew and trusted the

two identified accusers, Slama

and Todsen, he added.

“When I look at the people

who’ve come out, I tend to take

their word for it,” he said after

speaking to supporters on Satur-

day.

The rival candidates are not

alone in questioning Herbster’s

defense or explanations. When

the allegations were first report-

ed, all 13 women in the Nebraska

Senate signed a letter that called

the allegations “disqualifying”

and “completely unacceptable.”

“Sexual assault is despicable

and damaging,” they wrote, in-

cluding state Sen. Carol Blood

(D), who is running unopposed

for t he Democratic gubernatorial

nomination. “This is not a ques-

tion of politics. It is an issue of

character and basic human de-

cency.”

Herbster has released a televi-

sion ad both denying the accusa-

tions and noting t hat Slama once

worked for Ricketts. At a recent

news conference, Herbster ex-

plained that he had “taken the

route of attorneys to protect my

name and my reputation.”

Trump makes closing pitch for Nebraska candidate accused of sexual assault

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST

Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster, seen speaking at the Conservative Political Action

Conference in Orlando in February, has been accused of sexual assault by at least eight women.

JOE SKIPPER/REUTERS

BLOOMBERG NEWS

DIANE BONDAREFF/AP IMAGES FOR BLOOMBERG

PHILANTHROPIES

PAUL ELLIS/POOL/REUTERS

“We are talking about a small handful of

people who now exercise extraordinary control

over the boundaries of our discourse.”

Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU speech, privacy and technology project

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Elon Musk has made a deal to buy

Twitter. Mike Bloomberg created Bloomberg LP in 1981. Amazon

founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Mark Zuckerberg

has autonomy over three top U.S. social media platforms.