Kara Swisher Explains Plan to Buy The Washington Post | Pivot

1. KSKara Swisher0:00

   ... the cartoonist of the Washington Post has quit after a cartoon depicting, uh, billionaires, including Jeff Bezos, kneeling before President-elect Donald Trump, was blocked from publication. Ann, uh, Telnaes, I think that's how you pronounce it, uh, published a sketch of the cartoon, uh, on Subsca- Substack, saying it was the first time a work had been rejected because of who it depicted. Uh, she's a Pulitzer Prize winner, by the way. Amazing cartoonist. The Washington Post editorial page editor, David Shipley, said the cartoon was rejected because of its similarity to columns at the paper rather than the subject, although he managed to publish many similar columns over and over again. This is, it's nonsense what David Shipley said, and now I can say it very explicitly 'cause Amanda quit the Washington Post. Uh, he is really, uh, uh, this, this was nonsense what he was, his excuse. Um, in other related news, uh, Amazon's announced that it will release a behind-the-scenes documentary on Melania Trump by Brett Ratner, who was sucked up into the Me Too stuff rather egregiously. He seems to be a really, um, problematic person. Uh, and, uh, uh, and there's, uh, the New York Times did some really astonishing coverage on his behavior. Uh, so that was nice. Um, uh, what do you think, Scott? You wanna buy the Washington Post with me?

2. SGScott Galloway1:09

   This is such peacocking.

3. KSKara Swisher1:11

   Yeah.

4. SGScott Galloway1:11

   First off-

5. KSKara Swisher1:11

   I didn't invite you.

6. SGScott Galloway1:12

   ... if I'm gonna spend a lot of money to be put in pain, uh, he or she better be wearing-

7. KSKara Swisher1:16

   Yeah.

8. SGScott Galloway1:16

   ... leather and be hot. I just-

9. KSKara Swisher1:19

   (laughs)

10. SGScott Galloway1:19

    (laughs) What, what are you do- uh, I, uh, anyways. No, I'm not crazy. I, I, that is literally-

11. KSKara Swisher1:27

    Okay. All right. Good.

12. SGScott Galloway1:27

    ... I would, I think I told you when I had an experience-

13. KSKara Swisher1:30

    I'm waiting to hear your feedback.

14. SGScott Galloway1:31

    Well, no. I have-

15. KSKara Swisher1:31

    But go ahead.

16. SGScott Galloway1:32

    I braised s- back in the heyday of hedge funds, I convinced a hedge fund manager to give me $600 million to become the largest, uh, shareholder in the New York Times, and I learned a decent amount about newsrooms and, and the collision between shareholder governance and journalism and newsrooms, and I quickly learned, or I got a very expensive lesson, these are important institutions. I even wonder at some point-

17. KSKara Swisher1:57

    Right.

18. SGScott Galloway1:57

    ... if they should have some sort of tax benefit 'cause I think they do a really important, they do really important work.

19. KSKara Swisher2:02

    I agree.

20. SGScott Galloway2:02

    But at the end of the day, these are institutions that should be owned by trusts and they should have a trust, uh, that basically hires the right guy or gal to run the thing and they just stay the fuck out of it.

21. KSKara Swisher2:11

    Maybe I have that idea. Maybe I'm not doing it your way. God damn.

22. SGScott Galloway2:15

    Well, I know, but what I would argue ... So just, just to bring in the viewers, uh, just to ring the listeners up, there's been a lot of rumors that you're assembling a group to make a bid for-

23. KSKara Swisher2:23

    Yes.

24. SGScott Galloway2:23

    ... the Washington Post.

25. KSKara Swisher2:24

    Yes.

26. SGScott Galloway2:24

    And what I haven't heard is that Jeff Bezos is willing to sell it.

27. KSKara Swisher2:28

    Correct.

28. SGScott Galloway2:28

    (laughs) And so all of this, in my view, and I, uh, you know, and, is, uh, uh, I don't know, sort of a- all chip no salsa.

29. KSKara Swisher2:37

    Doesn't matter.

30. SGScott Galloway2:38

    Yeah. So we can, we, or when I say we I mean you, complain about the Post and the ownership and, but if you, and I told you this on the phone the other night, if you were serious about doing this, you would've had offline conversations with Bezos and said, "Can I put together a group that includes you and gives you some shark repellent and innoculates you from this un- this, this bullshit and grief which you are probably not enjoying right now, and gives you plausible deniability where you can say, 'Oh, it's up to the ...' " It's kinda like what you, I think, if you were serious, get, you have to get Jeff on board, and-

Episode duration: 9:23