I can think of better places to start, but that's not the point, is it?

The point is that you should be aware of individual biases, and should diversify your media consumption.

Apperantly not. According to this thread and hacker news in general you shouldn't diversify your media consumption. Unless what is meant by that is different sources with broadly the same agenda.

Personally, I find this boring. Perhaps you agree.

Even in the most extreme possible case where the WaPo is an outlet for Jeff Bezos' personal opinions, is it really the case that Jeff Bezos couldn't have anything interesting to tell us? One billionaire-owned newspaper isn't that bad on its own, because the other newspapers can still report on the owner of the one. What's really scary is when the billionaire owners go golfing together, which would be a failure of the system that banning a couple publications couldn't help us with.

Hasn't this been the case for some time? The number of people who actually matter in the news industry is only a few thousand, and their social graph looks like they're all married to each other's cousins (which is only half a joke).

Could you expand on that for those who dont follow the news industry closely.

> and Washington Post

Is Jeff Bezos running for Political office too?

You just moved the line from running for Presidential party nomination, skipped over mayor of major city, and jumped right to billionaires.

Add on; If all of a sudden you can't be wealthy and own (part of?) a media company, it really hurts the quality of journalism; you'd be left with small town or independent blogs; more susceptible to fake news -- and, more concerning, fear of publishing.

On the contrary, the media consolidation that has left papers in the hands of a few individuals has been tremendously bad for journalism. The only safe types are either diverse private ownership (more than two owners) or blind trusts. Yes, this rules out a lot of existing news outlets.

Virtually all the UK papers are now narrowly owned by individual billionaires whose agendas are very visible in the paper.

Blind trusts are a political fiction.

Why would we treat Bezos any differently? At his level of rare air, making/breaking regulations is just as important to profit as playing in the market. He has a whole lot more on the line politically than any politician.

I believe this is the Fed Philadelphia source

https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/research-and-data/re...