To whom does Venice belong? Bezos wedding draws attention to bucket list destination

The Debate

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7d ago 44:17

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Where else but the city of merchants, one whose fortune was founded on global trade, to host the celebrity wedding of the digital age's king of ecommerce? In Venice, Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of online trading platform Amazon, is tying the knot with journalist-turned-TV personality Lauren Sanchez in a spectacle that's drawn both paparazzi and protesters. What does this spectacle out of a Fellini movie say about the age we live in?

Organisers are tempering the extravagance with pledges of giving to good causes. For the world's third-richest man, who now owns The Washington Post newspaper, what does money buy?

We ask about the pushback, and the look for a city that hardly needs more publicity, what with its 150,000 visitors per day. Is the issue Bezos' obscene wealth or the advertisement it brings to Venice, a bucket list destination that's already heaving under the weight of record amounts of tourists?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri and Ilayda Habip.

25 episodes

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