Two events, juxtaposed, tell us a great deal about what is rapidly taking shape in the US. In one, Melania Trump releases a glossy documentary, Melania, an account of her return to the White House. Amazon outbid others to secure the rights to the documentary, spending $75m (£54m) in total, and ticket sales so far suggest that this was, shall we say, not a purely commercial venture.

In the other, the Washington Post is set to cut up to 200 jobs early this month, including the majority of its foreign staff and a sizeable chunk of its newsroom. Both Melania and the Washington Post are backed by Jeff Bezos. His two decisions, to invest in state propaganda and divest from the fourth estate that supposedly holds power to account, reveal much about how capital and authoritarianism join forces to decide what audiences read and see.

Trouble is afoot at another legacy US media outlet, CBS News. In July of last year, tech billionaire and Donald Trump ally Larry Ellison and his Hollywood producer son, David, took over Paramount, which oversees CBS News. The former New York Times columnist and, more recently, founder of anti-woke blog the Free Press, Bari Weiss, was parachuted in to run CBS News. She promptly ran into trouble, as she took on veterans of a channel that produces such storied programmes as 60 Minutes, and tried to justify editorial decisions that were seen as slanted in favour of the Trump administration.........

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