From left to right: Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times, Donald Trump and Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post.Illustration by Mother Jones; Imago/Zuma; Lw/The Texas Tribune/Pool; Doug Peters/Zuma

National newspaper endorsements it probably doesn’t make much difference in presidential elections (local elections are a completely different story). So, regarding the November 5 result, the billionaires who own the Washington Post And Los Angeles Times the growing endorsements of Kamala Harris that their respective editorial boards had already drafted are unlikely to move the needle. But when it comes to what we can expect from American media moguls in the face of a growing authoritarian movement, it was a red light moment — and it should mobilize everyone who cares about democracy.

Because it’s not just about Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and WaPo owner Jeff Bezos. It’s about whether we can afford a press dependent on billionaires and big business; a press whose courage (or spinelessness) depends on how its owner feels that day.

Here is just a sampling of who currently controls our major newsrooms. THE five largest newspaper chains in the United States are owned by a hedge fund, a private equity fund, another hedge fund, a billionaire family, and another billionaire family. Among the major television news networks, owners include the Murdoch family, Disney, Comcast, Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery.

Will these owners respect journalistic independence? We don’t need to guess. Soon-Shiong had already made headlines for pushing to kill Los Angeles Times cover involving one of his friends and his dog. (His editor ultimately resigned.) Lewis, the editor Bezos hired for the Jobwould have pushed his team to stop investigating his role in a British wiretapping scandal. The president of the NBC, César Condé, put a powerful documentary on Trump’s child separation policy remained on ice until after the election. And let’s not even talk about Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, whose platforms profit from the spread of disinformation while deletion real news.

But the pressures from past newsrooms may be child’s play compared to what could happen under a second Trump administration. Already, simper leaders are lining up to ingratiate themselves with a president whose vengeance could punish and whose whims could reward them.

(Not that a non-endorsement will save anyone from Trump’s wrath: the only thing that satisfies him is bootlicking a la Fox News, and even that network is not allowed get out of line for a minute. But maybe Bezos is betting he can take on Mark Zuckerberg, who, after calling Trump a “tough guy,” was patted on the head to “stay out of elections”).

We cannot look into the hearts of Bezos or Soon-Shiong to see if their decisions were motivated by “anticipated obedience“, hoping to attract conservative readers – including Bezos, according to At New York Timesidentified as a growing market -, or out of fears for their bottom line (the day the Post publicly increased its support for Harris, the executives of Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, which millions in government contracts, met with Trump.) It’s also possible that they just didn’t want to bother: Bezos might not have wanted to defend an approval at his next birthday party and Soon-Shiong I might have thought about Thanksgiving dinner.. But such nonchalance certainly does not inspire confidence that they will show courage in the face of authoritarians. knock on the door of their newspapers.

Depressing? Yes. But let’s not stop there, because billionaires and corporations aren’t the only players in the media industry. There are thousands of newsrooms across the country that are independent or nonprofit organizations, including Mother Jones. No one owns us, and no one ever will. We are accountable only to you, our audience. Seventy percent of our budget comes from individual supporters, and this is where I say, as loudly and urgently as possible, that I hope you will join them. This is what gives us the independence of investigate the oligarchs instead of cowering before them.

Want to do more? There is a non-corporate newsroom in almost every community in the country (and also many that specialize in particular issues, from criminal justice to climate change to reproductive rights). Find yours. These journalists are incredibly hardworking, efficient and fearless – I know because we partner with them. And they – all of us – are chronically money hungry. I can speak from experience to Mother Joneswhere this time of year means losing sleep because I don’t know how we’re going to budget for the following year to maintain a newsroom full of the bravest, toughest journalists in the world. (In total, our budget for one year is slightly less than what Jeff Bezos earned in 2017.) four hours.)

But here’s what we have that’s worth more than anything superyachts and megamansions in the world: knowing that when we are ready to publish, no one can tell us not to. Thank you. Please join our team of supporters (you can also subscribe to our award-winning print magazine) and help us finish this election cycle strong.