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a cartoonist at the Washington Post has quit after a cartoon depicting uh billionaires including Jeff bezos's
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kneeling before president-elect Donald Trump was blocked from publication and uh telas I think that's how you
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pronounce it uh published a sketch of the cartoon uh on sub substack saying it was the first time her work had been
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rejected because of who it depicted uh she's a peer priz winner by the way amazing Cartoonist the Washington Post
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editorial page editor David Shipley said the cartoon was rejected because of its
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similarity to Columns of the paper rather than his subject although he managed to publish many similar columns
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over and over again this is It's nonsense what David Shipley said and now I can say it very explicitly because
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Amanda quit the Washington Post uh he is really this this was nonsense what he was his excuse um in other related news
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uh Amazon has announced that it will release a behind the scenes documentary on Melania Trump by Brett Ratner who was
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sucked up into the me too stuff rather egregiously he seems to be a really um problematic person uh and
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and there's the New York Times did some really astonishing coverage on his behavior uh so that was nice um I what
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do you think Scott you want to buy the Washington Post with me this is such peacocking first off I didn't invite you
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if I'm going to spend a lot of money to be put in pain uh he or she better be wearing leather and be hot I
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just what are you do I anyways no I'm not crazy I I that is literally all right I I think I told you one I had an
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experience I'm waiting to hear your feedback I I've raised back in the Heyday of hedge funds
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I convinced a hedge fund manager to give me $600 million to become the largest uh
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shareholder in the New York Times and I learned a decent amount about newsrooms and the collision between shareholder
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governance and journalism and newsrooms and I quickly learned or I've got a very
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expensive lesson these are important institutions I even wonder at some point if they should have some sort of tax
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benefit because I think they do a really important they do really important work
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I agree but at the end of the day these are institutions that should be owned by
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trusts and they should have a trust that basically hires the right guy or gal to
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run the thing and they just say the [ __ ] out of it maybe I have that idea maybe
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I'm not doing it your way go well I know but what I would argue so just just to bring the viewers up just to bring the
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listeners up there's been a lot of rumors that you're assembling a group to make a bid for the Washington Post and
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what I haven't heard is that Jeff Bezos is willing to sell it correct and so all
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of this in my view and I you know and is a I don't know sort of all chip no Sals
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doesn't matter yeah so we can we or when I say we I mean you complain about the post and the ownership and but if you
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and I told you this on the phone the other night if you were serious about doing this you would have had offline
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conversations with Bezos and said can I put together a group that includes you and gives you some shark repellent and
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inoculates you from this un this this [ __ ] and grief which you are probably not enjoying right right now
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and gives you plausible deniability where you can say oh it's up to the it's kind of like what you I think if you
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were serious get you have to get Jeff on board and correct and then this is what
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I'm attempting to do try and get um again you're not asking if I'm attempting to do this well right and but
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the way you would do this Cara is quietly I think you're wrong you're not going to shame this guy into selling the
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I'm not shaming him I actually have praised his ownership until recently I have been very much appraising his
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ownership until recently I think it's much more complex I don't think that's what I'm doing I think there's ways to
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do things and calling attention to it and bringing it to the conversation right there's a lot more people than me
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looking at this by the way FYI is that right and I think the only yes and the only way and I'm meeting with everybody
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this is what this is how I'm approaching it I'm a reporter I was an excellent reporter I certainly was I think you
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still are an excellent reporter I am much more so than the guy who's the CEO of the company by the way by by a far
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and you are going to get this thing [ __ ] theur I I I think he fine whatever it
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doesn't matter it's not [ __ ] I'm telling I'm saying what I think that was the definition of [ __ ] wasn't well I
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am a better reporter I'm sorry it's a factual thing okay um so um I think the way to do it is start the conversation
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and get it going rather than these I am so sick of these quiet little deals that
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largely white men make other you mean deals that get done they don't they get get done because it's so I'm doing it a
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different way I'm doing it a different way I don't think that you have to like you know how you talk about try to do
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things differently try to think of new ways to do things that's what I'm doing I'm talking to everybody like everybody
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and you'd be surprised who I'm talking to by the way someone who was doubtful I had a long long conversation with a
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billionaire who was doubtful had a long long conversation last night suddenly he's very engaged in the idea because he
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started to listen to the various ideas I think it's okay what else did Mark Cuban
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say no no that's not what I'm talking about so um but he would be he would be great
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someone like that I welcome his his input because I think he's really smart I welcome the feedback of negativity
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that you are displaying that's fine that's great um I think it's good to talk to everyone and understand what the
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various possibilities would be and one of the things that I think doing this thing and then we'll we'll end this is
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why not just talk about it explicitly if I ran this thing everything would be transparent I would broadcast you know
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how you know you have all these media reporters like feeders talking about what happened at a meeting I broadcast
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the [ __ ] meeting what's the what's the secret here it's losing money here's how much money we're losing here's why
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here's what we invested in like I think one of the reasons pivot successful is because we're very transparent about
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what we're up to most of the time we really are and we say when we make mistakes I would make it public I'd make
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it a narrative I would come up with L lots of ideas and I agree with you it's not a money-making you do an HBO series
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like to survive or Behind the Music or those things where they go they they depict a season of a team out Survivor
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yeah you just make it's a great story and at the heart of I think you think those people in that institution is more
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interesting than it is I think you find it fascinating and a small group of bway
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people in calorama find it interesting and most of them find that the reporters in The Newsroom are amazing at reporting
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and they brighten up a room by leaving it I just don't think it's that dramatic a story I think it's a great story I
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think it's a it's got it it's it has it whole The Washington Post has a particular hold on this country in a way
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that's really wonderful in many ways by the way you don't think Ben Bradley was interesting that was so fantastic he was
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such a fantastic Katherine Graham I have all kinds of ideas to make it interesting and it is actually
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inherently interesting and the idea that there's one newspaper the New York time
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and also you could do all kinds of things with papers around the just like what's the fresh idea here is all I'm
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going for is let I'm open to the fresh idea of how you could save this institution in a way that is really
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interesting and it doesn't you don't have to have a foregone conclusion of every single thing I agree it's easier
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to start it from scratch it's easier to do it by yourself it's easier to do it very lightweight you run all over the
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country without a lot of things but this is a PE particular and peculiar institution I think is important and I
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obviously have an emotional connection to it because I started there in The Newsroom I haven't but there really is
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something about there cannot just be the New York times and by the way something's going to happen with the
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Wall Street Journal when rert goes who knows what goes on with that institution right um and then over in the west coast
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you got Looney Tunes the guy who's running that guy who seems to have he started off a liberal now he's a Trumper
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it's like and he's got like he doesn't know what he yeah but you're you're defining media by the fact that it's
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printed on dead trees you're defining media listen there's a lot of competition there's a lot of other I I
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told Don Graham when I left why are you even printing it this was back in the '90s I was like I don't even understand
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why you print it I don't I don't actually I still don't so I'm just saying I think this is interesting I
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find it to be like it's a it's an interesting puzzle to Caris swisher and I I and I have a million other things
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I'm doing that are much more lucrative much more promising enjoy just be you're so good you're leaning just be a
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billionaire just be a wealthy lesbian buy like a buy like a roller derby team or something just do something I want to
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do breath work I want this is my breath work like Bezos gets it you don't he's on a [ __ ] yacht with a with a woman
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in a in a g string in St Barts and you're talking about all this pain self-inflicted pain you're about to go
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into a dentist office and say hold off on the Novae have you been I mean you've been in newsrooms I'll give you that
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areow I've been in all of them I can't believe you would subject yourself to that [ __ ] I think it's a new way I
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think there's a new let me just tell you this is my breath work and I'm going to
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[ __ ] do it you you literally hired someone to teach you to breathe today and you're giving me a hard time about
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something that is actually slightly Noble even and that's not why I'm doing it I think it's fun I actually anyway
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we'll see what happens but I predict in 2025 I will meet with J my name isn't Caris swier okay I wouldn't I wouldn't
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put it past you I wouldn't put it I'm doing it he's going to do it and you know what he's going to like it