• by Steven Rosenbaum , Featured Contributor, February 8, 2021

OK, let’s start with a bit of a parable. I am replacing some cabinet doors in my kitchen. Nothing fancy, but it requires parts and such. It’s the kind of thing I’d usually order from Amazon, and it would arrive a day or two later. But this time, I ordered from a specialty hardware store because the sizes I needed were unusual. 

It took a month to build them, and almost three weeks of shipping, with a long and circuitous road going through three trucking companies, including one in Canada, and then upstate New York, and then Long Island, and then a "last mile" company where it was “out for delivery for three days.

Only after I called three trucking companies did I find the address and the phone number they had for me was wrong. THEN it was delivered.

Which made me think about Amazon. When I order something, where does it come from? How many hops does it take, and how is it all so darn seamless? The notifications are clear, the delivery date almost never misses, returns are easy, and it’s all invisible. Shipping is hard, and honestly, not knowing all the details is fine with me.

Amazon is a monumentally big company, and there are plenty of complaints about its scale, and how it treats vendors and employees. But it DID just raise the minimum wage to $15, even as the federal government seems unable to get that done. And both Amazon Web Services and Amazon -- the shopping site -- have built a massive company that delivers on complicated logistics with behind-the-scenes elegance that’s unmatched. 

So, that brings me to Jeff Bezos. It’s clear that there’s plenty more to build at Amazon: Will it grow its pharmacy business, or grocery, or real estate? What about drone delivery? And clearly, he’ll be in the mix for all of those decisions. But he can hand off implementation and operations and move on to new things.

So, what’s next?

He’s got his eyes on the stars and space. And this isn’t a new passion for him. As a Princeton student, Bezos was involved with Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. Seriously. And he’s a hardcore “Star Trek” fan. So, Blue Origin, the aerospace company he founded, is going to take up a bunch of his time and money. But he’ll get plenty of venture dollars to grow that if he wants to. 

So, the question is, with $200 billion, what could he do to make a big impact?

Folks who know him say he’s not naturally philanthropic. This isn’t to say he won’t have a philanthropic foundation and put his massive wealth to good work. He will, and it will be substantial. 

But what if he decided to look at broken pieces of society and aim his massive wealth in that direction? Marc Benioff of Salesforce bought Time magazine. And Bezos has already been hands-on at The Washington Post, and insiders say he’s been a good owner. 

So here’s my proposal. News and information on the web is broken and causing damage. It’s pretty clear that Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit aren’t going to make big changes. And that leaves a country divided, with Fox News becoming more hard-right, trying to compete with NewsMax and OAN.

I think Bezos should buy Fox News and Breitbart. He would have to agree to keep them conservative, but with a more centrist view, to serve Republican viewers and readers who don’t want to be forced to choose between the Democrats and the Trump Militant MAGA crowd. These outlets could become the genuine voice of the unrepresented, but large, moderately conservative audience.

OK, maybe that's crazy -- but with the resources he has, he could help provide balance and objectivity that is currently not even offered to audiences. And, if you think the problem with the web is infrastructure, he could pony up and buy cable companies like Altice and Spectrum -- here, too, giving consumers more choice. No longer would you have to pay for a Fox News channel as part of a basic cable bundle. The same goes for MSNBC. A la carte would give cable a chance to rebalance how channels are paid, thought the contracts would require some battles for sure. 

Overall, Bezos has an important and exciting chapter ahead. He’s 55 years old, passionate about building great things, and has both the capital to go it alone and the history and reputation to attract smart capital that could dramatically increase his economic reach. 

I’m not sure what he’ll do, but I’m hopeful it will be him focusing on a hard problem and digging in to make a global impact. And we’ll see soon enough.