It has been almost five years since Amazon founder and CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos closed his purchase of the Washington Post for $250 million, and still we don’t know for certain why he bought it. President Donald Trump has been no help getting to the bottom of it, recently polluting the topic with his assertion—backed with zero evidence—that Bezos acquired the paper to “lobby” for Amazon.
Bezos himself has taken a few shots at explaining his motivation. Two years ago, when Post Executive Editor Martin Baron pitched the question directly at the world’s wealthiest man in a public conversation, Bezos swung the civic-responsibility bat, connecting cleanly. Citing what would later become the paper’s dopey motto, “democracy dies in darkness,” Bezos continued, “Certain institutions have a very important role in making sure there is light, and I think the Washington Post has a seat, an important seat to do that, because we happen to be located here in the capital city of the United States of America.”
