Hello? Peel back the calendar, decade by decade, and tell me if you can ever find an era where information publishers were owned by people who were truly pure o

Hello? Peel back the calendar, decade by decade, and tell me if you can ever find an era where information publishers were owned by people who were truly pure of heart. It's always been an industry that attracts rich folks with egos. Hearst? Henry Luce? Col. McCormick (Chicago Tribune and the aptly named WGN broadcasting properties, for World's Greatest Newspaper)? Ted Turner/CNN? Folks like Joseph Pulitzer tidied up their reputations at the end. But when they were at their prime, they hustled the system as well as anyone. At least Bezos (and Omidyar) are putting capital into an industry that's generally been bled for dividends and slowly liquidated. No publication is perfect. No owner comes close. But as long as lots of different outlets present different versions of what's going on, a lot of valuable information gradually makes its way into the public domain.