At a question and answer session at the Recode tech conference Wednesday, former Democratic nominee for president Hillary Clinton said Amazon founder Jeff Bezos "saved" The Washington Post. She praised Bezos' hands-off approach so reporters can investigate "Whitewater" type scandals. Clinton probably meant to say Watergate. Whitewater was a Clinton-era real estate investment scandal.



Clinton called for tech billionaires to buy news organizations to compete "against a considerable advantage on the other side." Clinton had previously said conservatives dominate local news.



"I think Jeff Bezos saved the Washington Post," she said at the conference. "Newspapers like the Post, the Journal, the Times still drives news. It drives news online, it drives news on TV. What Bezos, from what I am told... he's interested in making it a good business proposition, but he's hands-off on the editorial and content front. He's basically said, get out there and do investigations and they are doing some of the best investigations about what's going on with the White House now."



"I think it was a very good use of his financial resources because now we have a very good newspaper again operating in Washington and driving news elsewhere. And doing, you know, Whitewater-level investigations" Clinton said.