[colordrops]

> News organizations are (not surprisingly) entirely motivated by profit.

That's an over-simplication.

Sure, Jeff Bezos probably wants to make a profit with his purchase of the Washington Post. But the profits there are probably not his main objective as they are too small to make much of a difference to a person of Bezo's wealth.

Bezo's goal is to have a mouthpiece to push his agendas, such as pushing Amazon and trashing Musk properties. So you say that the purpose in doing that is to make more money. But the problem with that line of thinking is that you could reduce almost any action to "profit". You could reach further back and go a level lower and say that making profit is motivated by reproductive fitness, and thus "News organizations are entirely motivated by sex". But at some point you have to let go of the circuitous route from action to final motivation and focus on the immediate drivers of an action.

Politics, money, sex, job security, prestige, etc all all motivations for news organizations, as well as many other organizations.

[ggg9990]

Thinking that Bezos wanted WaPo to advocate for Amazon and trash Musk is to treat him as a rich person, not the wealthy person that he actually is.

[kelnos]

Could you explain what you mean by the difference in a person who is "rich" vs. "wealthy"? I don't think that's coming through in your comment.

[ggg9990]

It’s a question of mindset, but often correlated with scale. A rich person is a successful car dealership owner who has a net worth of $50 million, drives a Lamborghini on the weekends, lives in an 10,000 square foot mansion, has a sweet private movie theater, and owns a 60 foot powerboat. His economic activity is focused on consumption. He wants to leave his kids enough money to be rich for life. I can’t give many examples because these people are soon forgotten, but Donald Trump was almost one of these guys until he got some new ideas late in life.

A wealthy person has a net worth of $100 billion, is driven around in a Mercedes S600, has a 120 foot sailboat, goes to private parties at Sundance, values their time above everything else, and is focused on his legacy and place in history. His economic activity is focused on investment. He wants to leave his kids with enough money, connections, and capabilities to become among the great American families, shaping policy and public life for centuries. Think Rockefeller, Carnegie, Gates.