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Jeff Bezos' turn in the barrel

Moving the Market: Jeff Bezos and Amazon appear to be on the cusp of a new, sustained wave of media scrutiny, one that has the potential to bring about a sea change in public sentiment not unlike that which Uber and Facebook have endured in recent years.

• The big picture: New media investigations into Amazon suggest that Bezos and his e-commerce giant are about to take their turn in the anti-tech barrel.

In the last two weeks...

• The Wall Street Journal revealed that thousands of items for sale on Amazon had been declared unsafe by federal agencies or banned by regulators, but Amazon kept selling them anyway.

• BuzzFeed News reported that Amazon's next-day delivery system was forcing third-party contractors into unsafe working conditions leading to deaths and injuries, all while Amazon escaped the blame.

Whatever you make of the findings, the reports themselves are a clear signal of where the media is focusing its firepower.

• Meanwhile, Amazon's political support is eroding in Washington. Many Democrats see the company as an anti-union monopoly, while President Donald Trump appears to have a personal animus toward Bezos.

• Add to this that Bezos himself has become a subject of gossip-rag intrigue in the wake of his high-profile divorce and an even more high-profile relationship with media personality Lauren Sanchez.

What's next: Like Uber and Facebook before it, Amazon could be headed for unyielding scrutiny, reputational damage and internal crisis. It may affect the stock price (like Uber), or it may not (like Facebook). But either way, the company appears set to face stronger headwinds in the months ahead.

Bloomberg/Getty

State AGs gun for Google

Big in the Bay, big in the Beltway: "More than half of the nation’s state attorneys general are readying an investigation into Google for potential antitrust violations, scheduled to be announced next week," WaPo's Tony Romm reports.

• The big picture: The investigation marks "a major escalation in U.S. regulators’ efforts to probe Silicon Valley’s largest companies."

• The big question: "Whether the industry’s access to vast amounts of proprietary data — and deep pockets — allow companies to gobble up rivals and maintain their dominance to the detriment of consumers."

What's next: "It is unclear whether some or all of the attorneys general also plan to open or announce additional probes into other tech giants, including Amazon and Facebook."

🇺🇸 Talk of the Trail 🇺🇸

Big in the Hills: President Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker will all hold fundraisers in Los Angeles later this month, per Deadline's Ted Johnson and Dominic Patten.

• Biden's fundraiser will be held at the home of Cityview chief Sean Burton and his wife Teresa, and co-hosted by Joe Waz, senior strategic adviser to Comcast Corporation, and his wife Cynthia Telles.

Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.

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Ron Wyden's radical rhetoric

Stranger things dept.: Sen. Ron Wyden says Mark Zuckerberg should possibly go to prison for lying to American citizens about Facebook’s privacy errors — a rare and extreme charge for a U.S. Senator to make about one of America's business leaders.

• "Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly lied to the American people about privacy,” Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, told Willamette Week.

• "I think he ought to be held personally accountable, which is everything from financial fines to — and let me underline this — the possibility of a prison term. Because he hurt a lot of people."

• "There is a precedent for this: In financial services, if the CEO and the executives lie about the financials, they can be held personally accountable.”

The big picture: Wyden did not explain specifically how Zuckerberg had lied to the American people or what existing law he had violated that would warrant his being sent to prison.

• Wyden has introduced a bill that would give the FTC power to sentence executives for up to 20 years for violating consumer privacy.

Meanwhile, University of Oregon journalism professor Tim Gleason tells Willamette Week that such a prosecution is theoretically possible, but "the likelihood of criminal action is rather slim."

Market Links

• Tech giants scramble to rewrite California privacy law (WaPo)

• Ren Zhengfei didn't anticipate a Google disruption (Information)

• Casper Klynge represents Denmark in Silicon Valley (NYT)

• Roger Lynch negotiates with Condé's new union (Bloomberg)

• A.G. Sulzberger scraps oil conference sponsorship (Guardian)

Mike Coppola/Getty

John Stankey gets promoted

Big with the Bell Heads: WarnerMedia chief John Stankey has been promoted to president and chief operating officer of AT&T, giving him oversight of the Xandr ad-tech unit and the AT&T Communications unit, as well as WarnerMedia, Variety's Brian Steinberg reports.

• The big picture: "The move would seem to set Stankey up as a potential successor to Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s Chairman & CEO."

Bruce Glikas/Getty

Ryan Murphy unveils slate

Talk of Tinseltown: Netflix's star showrunner Ryan Murphy has revealed his long-awaited slate of new original movies and shows in an interview with Time Magazine, peeling back the curtain on an essential portion of Netflix's content arsenal in the years ahead.

• The big picture: Murphy's success or failure at Netflix will serve as a referendum on the streamer's decision to pay hundreds of millions of dollars — in Murphy's case, $300 million — for top Hollywood producers.

The Murphy slate:

• "'The Politician,' a sharp, crackling series about an ambitious young man, played by Ben Platt, running for high school office.

• "'Ratched,' a moody origin story about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s Nurse Ratched, starring Sarah Paulson."

• Two Broadway musicals: "'A Chorus Line,' a 10-part miniseries... and 'The Prom,' a feature, [with] Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman."

• "'Hollywood,' featuring Patti LuPone and Holland Taylor, [which] will 'look at Hollywood and the sex industry.'"

• "A miniseries about the designer Halston, with Ewan McGregor playing the couturier."

• "'A Secret Love,'" a documentary "about a closeted lesbian couple who came out in their 80s."

• A “big, flashy 10-part series” about Andy Warhol.

• "A docuseries about the most stylish people in the world."

• "A piece about Marlene Dietrich in Vegas in the early ’60s,” starring Jessica Lange.

What's next: Netflix's decision to hire Murphy, Shonda Rhimes and other high-cost showrunners will be especially important as the company looks to amass original content to offset the loss of licensed shows to rival services.

Bonus: See Murphy on Time's cover.

📱What's next: Speaking of the content hunt, Jeffrey Katzenberg has landed Christoph Waltz and Liam Hemsworth for a new action-thriller series on the forthcoming Quibi.

See you tomorrow.