All in Uber/Taxi
A new California law threatens to upend Uber, but the Washington Post claimed the law doesn’t apply to the ride-hailing giant. This is convenient, since Post owner Jeff Bezos is not only a major Uber investor, but also founder and CEO of Amazon, which is likely to also be negatively impacted by the new law.
A review of Washington Post articles on Uber from this year—during which damning revelations about the company came in waves—shows that the paper is informing readers infrequently, and not at all in the past four months, that Post owner Jeff Bezos was, and presumably still is, an Uber investor.
Travis Kalanick is out… For many Kalanick’s sudden departure may come as a shock. But for those who watched him testify before the DC Council five years ago, the only wonder may be that he lasted this long.
“We cover Uber as we would any other company,” Post executive editor Marty Baron wrote in an email response to submitted questions. “Jeff Bezos has never had any influence over our coverage.”
The Peterson Company likely couldn’t have built National Harbor without hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars.The public investment was worth it, officials explained at the time, because it would bring jobs. But fast-forward five years and the promise of local jobs seems a distant one, at least when it comes to taxis.
Testifying last week before the D.C. Council, 35-year-old Uber CEO Travis Kalanick routinely interrupted councilmembers and espoused a right-wing ideology. “We’re a tech company,” Kalanick said at a talk at the Heritage Foundation in December. “I don’t have any drivers, and I don’t have any cars.”
Last week, taxi chair Ron Linton made serious allegations against D.C. cabbies but failed to offer evidence to back them up.
Hundreds of taxicab drivers attended a Jan. 30 hearing on taxi reform legislation in order to voice their opposition to a bill introduced by Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh.
