In the summer of 2013, the then-owner of POLITICO, Robert Allbritton, asked me a question in a casual, just-shooting-the-breeze tone of voice: Do you think the Graham family would ever sell The Washington Post?
My answer was swift and emphatic: Never. Before becoming a founder of POLITICO, I had spent the first two decades of my career at the Post and followed its fortunes with more than a passing interest. Although the paper was facing challenges, the institution and what it stood for were too intimately intertwined with the Graham family’s identity and values to ever let go.
A few days later, I realized I had been the brunt of an Allbritton joke. He already knew the Grahams were selling. He had been invited to be considered as a buyer and declined. But someone many times richer than Allbritton had accepted.
Even more startling than the news that the Post would be sold was the purchaser: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s wealthiest men. He’s now at the center of an angry storm — fanned by both Post employees and readers — over his startling last-minute intervention to spike an editorial endorsing Kamala Harris over Donald Trump.