I think no matter how rich someone is they will always act to protect their own interests. Indeed this is how most billionnaires got that way in the first place.
www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/five-reasons-why-we-don-t-have-free-and-independent-press-in-uk-and-what-we-can-do-about/
For example Harold Evans, a former editor at the Sunday Times, made it very clear to the Leveson Inquiry how Rupert Murdoch interfered with thecontent of the paper. Evans was often rebuked for “not doing what he [Murdoch] wants in political terms,” including when reporting on the economy. Evans recounted how they almost came to “fisticuffs” because he allowed an economist (James Tobin) to publish an article with differing viewpoints to Murdoch in the Sunday Times. According to Evans, Murdoch’s “determination to impose his will” destroyed the “editorial guarantees that he'd given.”
Evans went on to say:
“Mr Murdoch was continually sending for my staff without telling me and telling them what the paper should be. He sent for the elderly and academic Mr Hickey, who went in tremulously, to be told by Mr Murdoch, "Your leaders are too long, too complex. You should be attacking the Russians more."”
David Yelland, a former editor of The Sun – another Murdoch owned paper – admitted inan interview:
"All Murdoch editors, what they do is this: they go on a journey where they end up agreeing with everything Rupert says but you don't admit to yourself that you're being influenced. Most Murdoch editors wake up in the morning, switch on the radio, hear that something has happened and think: what would Rupert think about this? It's like a mantra inside your head, it's like a prism. You look at the world through Rupert's eyes."
During the Leveson inquiry, when asked about this, Murdoch was also reminded hehad previously said, “If you want to judge my thinking, look at the Sun." Murdoch admitted that frequent phone calls happened between the editors and him, although as Yelland shows, the influence of Murdoch could also be more subtle, with editors internalising his values and opinions.
Even The Guardian is compromised, although not as much as other national media companies. TheScott Trust Limited, which owns The Guardian, is wholly owned by the company directors who are prohibited from takingany dividends. The Guardian also claims to be guided by a range ofprogressive values, including the task of maintaining its editorial independence. However, as Nafeez Ahmed points out inInsurge Intelligence, some membersof its boardare ex-financiers – binding the Guardian into Britain’s murky financial world in a way which may surprise many of its readers.
With six billionaires as majority voting shareholders for most of the UK national newspapers, it is unsurprising that they mostly supported the Conservatives in the last general election. The Conservatives reduced the top tax rate, and want to reduce it further, giving millionaires and billionaires massive tax breaks. Under the current media ownership structure, how much hope is there of genuine progressive agendas to reduce wealth, income and power inequality that also threatens the interests of the billionaires and companies that own the press?