“This is what oligarchy is about,” Sanders told anchor Kaitlan Collins. “You have Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, Mr. Musk already owns Twitter, you have other billionaires owning the major media outlets in this country, CNN, other companies”
By Nileena Sunil
Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a warning about billionaires controlling the media, in an interview with CNN on Jan. 22.
“We need media who are fearless in speaking out on the issues of the day, and you’re not going to have that when you have a small number of very wealthy people controlling what we see, hear and read,” he said.
This comes shortly after Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration, which was attended by the three richest men in the world: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg.
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Sanders noted in the interview that major news publications and social media outlets were already controlled by billionaires. This was in response to a question about Musk possibly acquiring the mega-popular social media platform TikTok.
“This is what oligarchy is about,” Sanders told anchor Kaitlan Collins. “You have Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, Mr. Musk already owns Twitter, you have other billionaires owning the major media outlets in this country, CNN, other companies.”
“If you look at who owns them, you’re looking at large Wall Street firms,” the senator continued. “So, you already have a major serious problem in terms of ownership of the media. If Musk ends up owning TikTok, it’ll only make a bad situation much worse.” Trump had confirmed on Tuesday that he is open to the idea of Musk acquiring TikTok. This conversation occurred following a possible ban on TikTok, which Sanders opposed.
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Sanders had also taken to X to express his fear of a burgeoning oligarchy controlling the government. “When I started talking about Oligarchy, many people didn’t understand what I meant. Well, that’s changed. When the 3 wealthiest men in America sit behind Trump at his inauguration, everyone understands that the billionaire class now controls our government. We must fight back,” he said.
Sanders also brought up wealth inequality in a piece for The Guardian, among other issues like healthcare, homelessness, and climate change, which he believes Trump failed to address in his inaugural speech.