Hillary Clinton believes ‘Jeff Bezos saved The Washington Post’

Hillary Clinton says that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos “saved” The Washington Post by buying it in 2013, setting an example that more tech moguls should follow. “I think Jeff Bezos saved The Washington Post,” she said, during an interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at Recode’s Code Conference. “I think a lot of people, a lot of his peers and friends, thought — why would you buy this ancient medium called a newspaper? But newspapers like the Post, the Journal, the Times, a few others, still drive news. It drives news online, drives news on TV.”

“I think it was a very good use of his financial resources,” Clinton continued. “Because now we have a very good newspaper again operating in Washington, and driving news elsewhere.”

The topic came up during a discussion of how Democrats can compete with Republicans’ strong local television and radio presence. “You would be a great advisor to one or more of our tech billionaires who want to buy some media,” Clinton joked to Mossberg. “Well then, we’re going to have to find other people who will compete against what is a considerable advantage on the other side,” she said when he demurred.

Since Trump’s inauguration, The Washington Post has broken several potentially damaging political scoops about the administration, including a recent allegation that Trump advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner proposed creating a communication back channel with Russia after the election. Clinton praised Bezos for the paper’s reporting, saying he was “hands-off on the editorial and content front, and he’s basically said, ‘Get out there and do investigations.’ And they’re doing some of the best investigations about what’s going on with the White House now.”