The Washington Post doesn’t want you to see this Fire Elon Musk ad.

Our ad was all set to run, 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 complimenting Trump.

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 their reasoning (believe us, we asked!) But when you look at our ad for yourself, I bet you’ll put two and two together:

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. decisionmakers 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 duty?

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 is now mirroring.

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 momentary 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.