WITH Donald Trump and his brood shifting to the White House again, who do you think is bracing the most for the worst that can happen without really hoping for the best? The vulnerable groups the Episcopal bishop of Washington begged him to have mercy on have every reason to be worried. However, the trepidation would be as palpable at an office hardly a few blocks from Pennsylvania Avenue: The Washington Post he adquarter s.

Slightly trailing behind would be its competitor The New York Times. Neither are exactly trembling in their boots as pressure and upheavals are a staple at news organisations. Still, four years of a vindictive presidency can be daunting, even for the hardened ruffians that Trump makes them out to be.

Why should the world`s largest and most influential newspapers be apprehensive about a change in government in a country supposedly leading the free world? Isn`t free media a basic tenet of freedom of expression, the bedrock of people`s power and democracy? The truth is that while one must aspire to a free media, news has to be paid for. This makes it a business; like every other, it has interests. It is not always in conflict, for instance, with the public`s interest or that of its employees. But let us not disregard business interests that intersect with public interests that the Fourth Estate is entrusted with safeguarding.

To continue providing all the news fit to be printed and aired, news organisations must keep themselves afloat, if not awash with profit. Circulation for print news and viewership for digital can significantly enhance their ability to investigate and report independently and fairly.

Independence and fairness appear subjective to the party that feels itself to be on the receiving end, especially if it wields immense administrative, legislative, judicial, and political power.

In his first stint in the White House (2017 to 2021) Trump waged a war of attrition on not just The Post and NYT but on any media company perceived as liberal. In keeping with his campaign tirades, immediately after assuming office, he declared his administration was at war with The Post, whose then editor Martin Baron came up with a response that has since become journo gold: `We are not at war; we are at work.

Entities and individuals with deep pockets have a certain edge in wars of attrition.

While residues of regulatory checks and balances prevent the wholesale use of public funds for personal vendettas no matter how venal the occupant of the Oval Office, to have wealthy supporters not only perpetuates the vilification and victimisationof opponents, it also disperses blame and builds plausible deniability.

However, all wealth is not equal. Today, someone rich in steel or railways can buy a yacht or jump into the lake. A particular kind of rich puts a certain handful of individuals above everyone else: the tech giants of the Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos kind.

You can have the best set of investigative reporters, the brightest editors, the most excellent analysts, and scoops and breaking stories every day, yet nobody may hear of them. Google, Facebook, TikTok, and Apple algorithms decide who sees and hears what.

The 2016 US election was marred by accusations of Russian interference and Facebook influencing in favour of Trump.

Those interested can delve into the Congressional hearings and impeachment proceedings against Mark Zuckerberg and Trump.Theywillfindbonusinformationon how deeply Trump is embroiled in Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky with him.

In 1933, the Graham family salvaged TheWashington Post from bankruptcy, built it asanationalicon,and ran it till 2013, when as the paper was going into the red again, Jeff Bezos of Amazon bought it.

That he sells sundry stuff, from books to duct tape online more than anyone else does not make him themost dangerous newspaper publisher the US president should fear. His other interests, the cloud computing service and his dabbling in space via his company Blue Origin, irked Trump and his wealthy supporters with competing business interests.

In his first term, Trump instituted special investigations against Amazon and its owner. Bezos bought The Post for $250 million. The joke in Washington circles then was that it cost him 10 and a quarter billion dollars; he was soon denied a $10bn cloud services contract renewal bid for the US army.

According to the grapevine, a Pakistani media owner named his TV channel some 20 years back saying, it would decide who the next prime minister would be. It cost him a lot, including prison time. The predicament of our media is far worse than that of the US. Here, the cloud, the rainmaker, and the Grim Reaper appear in the same garb.• The wnter is a poet. His latest publication is a collection of satire essays titled Rindana.

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