[kingnight]

Without flogging corporations, the public won't be able to act on their bad behaviors.

Imagine if there were no articles written about Amazon, or Airbnb, and instead there were only article written about exploitation of workers or skirting the hotel laws as bad things that are happening (either in theory or out there in the wild). In that case, the public won't actualize it or internalize it enough to take action with who they vote for, and in turn elected officials won't bother taking action because their constituents don't know/don't care and so it's not important for them either.

[sushisource]

Not sure I buy that. The articles could be framed as "We need to pass legislation to prevent behavior like X, which for example Amazon participates in"

But that just doesn't generate the clicks like "Amazon is evil" does.

[kingnight]

Fair enough. I would extend not generating clicks as an example of my point but I do think I tried to too narrowly explain why things are the way they are without reflecting on other alternatives too much.

[BeetleB]

False dichotomy.

You can flog governments by highlighting how companies like Amazon exploit people and the rules. You could write the exact same article and then instead of demanding AirBnB change, demand the government to change.

[kingnight]

Great point. Agreed. My comment above has too narrow a view.