John, the billionaire-owned Washington Post doesn’t want you to see this Fire Elon Musk ad.

Our ad was all set to run tomorrow morning, with a signed contract and all. But at the last minute, Jeff Bezos's newspaper rejected our ad from running in its White House edition with no explanation, even though they have run similar ads praising Trump. [1]

You read that right. The Washington Post – which has a responsibility to hold a magnifying glass up to powerful people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump – refused to run our ad calling them out.

The Post – whose tagline reminds us that “democracy dies in darkness” – won’t tell us its reasoning (believe us, we asked!) But when you look at our ad for yourself, I bet you’ll put two and two together:

I’m writing to you because this isn’t just about one ad or even one billionaire – it’s about who our democracy is for: all of the people or just the ultra-rich?

Let’s back up a bit: Common Cause has spent the past few weeks going all out on D.C. decision-makers to keep Elon Musk’s greedy hands off our schools, our hospitals, our personal information, and our Social Security.

After hundreds of thousands of petition signatures – plus over 5,000 Common Cause members like you stepping up financially to back our Fire Elon Musk campaign – we decided to send a message they couldn’t ignore: a newspaper ad delivered straight to the White House and congressional offices.

So, when the Washington Post abruptly pulled out and refused to explain why, we had some questions:

Did our ad get censored because it criticizes Elon Musk and Donald Trump, the two most powerful men in the country?
Will the Washington Post only publish things they think the president will like?
And… is Jeff Bezos more worried about an angry phone call from the White House than his paper’s journalistic integrity?

Just a few weeks ago, Bezos had a front-row seat with Musk at Trump’s inauguration – not to mention Mark Zuckerberg, whose cowardly and profit-driven decision to end fact-checking on Facebook Bezos appears to be mirroring.

John, it seems like wherever you look, from “independent” media outlets to our elected leaders in Congress, institutions we used to rely on to defend our democracy are dropping the ball. They’re choosing profit, comfort, or political convenience over their duty to the American people.

That means it’s up to us – and Common Cause is ready to do whatever it takes.

We won’t let billionaires like Musk and Bezos silence the truth. If legacy media refuses to hold the powerful accountable, then we’ll do it ourselves with your help. Together, we can succeed where others have failed, answer the call, and do what’s right – no matter who tries to stop us.

Thanks for all you do,

Virginia Kase Solomón, President and CEO
and the team at Common Cause

P.S. You can help make sure everyone sees this ad that the Washington Post wanted to cover up by forwarding this email to three friends, sharing our blog post, or linking to the coverage in The Hill.

P.P.S. Our actions wouldn’t be getting this kind of reaction from billionaires like Jeff Bezos if they weren’t effective. If you want Common Cause to keep showing up like this – and to remain a persistent thorn in the side of anyone who tries putting their own interests ahead of our democracy – support our work today >>

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[1] https://thehill.com/media/5148497-washington-post-backs-out-of-fire-elon-musk-ad-order/