Littleton, New Hampshire (CNN) Sen. Bernie Sanders scaled back his criticism of the media on Tuesday, telling CNN he did not believe that Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos was dictating the paper's coverage of his campaign.

But while the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate acknowledged that there is no direct link between the Post newsroom and Bezos, he continued to argue that the structure of the mainstream media leaves candidates like him at a disadvantage. "I think my criticism of the corporate media is not that they are anti-Bernie, that they wake up, you know, in the morning and say, 'What could we do to hurt Bernie Sanders?' -- that's not the case, that Jeff Bezos gets on the phone to The Washington Post," the Vermont independent said in an interview with CNN. "There is a framework of what we can discuss and what we cannot discuss, and that's a serious problem."

Sanders clarified his position on Bezos' role after suggesting twice on Monday that his public objections to Amazon's business practices had influenced the Post's reporting.

"I talk about (Amazon's taxes) all of the time," Sanders said in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, a day earlier. "And then I wonder why The Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon, doesn't write particularly good articles about me. I don't know why."

The remarks prompted a sharp response from Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron, who defended the paper's independence.

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