I think we as a society may have underrecognized the impacts of newspapers and traditional/smaller media companies going out of business and the consolidation of news companies. Like twitter, I don’t think they’re being bought for investment purposes, I think they’re being bought for the sake of covertly spreading misinformation (which is a longer term investment for Big Money). I think a lot of people believe the ideas that are common in the news diet they consume, and those who wish to influence policy have found a pristine opportunity to shape that diet on a large scale for a bargain of a price (e.g., local newspapers facing bankruptcy and motivated to sell)
I think we as a society may have underrecognized the impacts of newspapers and traditional/smaller media companies going out of business and the consolidation of news companies. Like twitter, I don’t think they’re being bought for investment purposes, I think they’re being bought for the sake of covertly spreading misinformation (which is a longer term investment for Big Money). I think a lot of people believe the ideas that are common in the news diet they consume, and those who wish to influence policy have found a pristine opportunity to shape that diet on a large scale for a bargain of a price (e.g., local newspapers facing bankruptcy and motivated to sell)
(Edit: here’s a fitting headline from today- https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/29/x-caught-blocking-links-to-npr-claiming-the-news-site-may-be-unsafe/)