As Kara Swisher continues her quest to try and buy The Washington Post, despite the fact that Jeff Bezos has not indicated he’s willing to sell it, she is confident in being able to obtain the funding. On Thursday’s episode of “The View,” the former writer for the publication said that the biggest hurdle she is facing is Bezos himself.
“The money is not the issue. The issue is Jeff Bezos doesn’t want to sell it because he sees it as a tool now,” she explained to the ABC hosts. “Musk has X, and he has this.”
Swisher noted that “there are good billionaires and a lot of hundred millionaires” that she is friendly with, and that she could get the funding fairly easily. At that, host Joy Behar asked who and where they were, begging them to speak out.
“There is lots, there is lots of them. Mark Cuban,” she said. “Mark Cuban does, I had dinner with him at South by Southwest [Film Festival].”
Going into more detail on the failings of the publication, Swisher pointed out that “all the really good people are leaving” and subscriptions are rapidly falling due to Bezos’ editorial decisions.
“It’s all due to Jeff’s things. He likes to blame the reporters, they don’t like the change, and I would have agreed, ten years ago,” she said. “But the reporters do understand that they need to change.”
Moderator Whoopi Goldberg was particularly excited at the idea of Swisher successfully purchasing the publication, prompting the writer to ask if she wanted in on the deal.
“I do! I do,” she confirmed. “But maybe the idea is … crowdfunding, because I think lots of people would like to be part of a newspaper that had something to say.”
But, knowing funding was less of an issue, Whoopi then suggested maybe just creating an entirely new newspaper, which Swisher also admitted she is considering.
“Well that’s what I’m thinking now, I have to say. Because he does not want to sell, he does not want to sell to me,” she explained. “We had a lot of testy relations when I was covering. But I think he does not want to sell. There’s lots of reasons why not to, including embarrassment, right? Like, things are not working out. And if he can use it, he can use it!”
“The View” airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET on ABC.
