CJR: How do billionaires influence the news in 2020? Consider Bill Gates.

[Winehole23]

As philanthropists increasingly fill in the funding gaps at news organizations—a role that is almost certain to expand in the media downturn following the coronavirus pandemic—an underexamined worry is how this will affect the ways newsrooms report on their benefactors. Nowhere does this concern loom larger than with the Gates Foundation, a leading donor to newsrooms and a frequent subject of favorable news coverage.


I recently examined nearly twenty thousand charitable grants the Gates Foundation had made through the end of June and found more than $250 million going toward journalism. Recipients included news operations like the BBC, NBC, Al Jazeera, ProPublica, National Journal, The Guardian, Univision, Medium, the Financial Times, The Atlantic, the Texas Tribune, Gannett, Washington Monthly, Le Monde, and the Center for Investigative Reporting; charitable organizations affiliated with news outlets, like BBC Media Action and the New York Times’ Neediest Cases Fund; media companies such as Participant, whose documentary Waiting for “Superman” supports Gates’s agenda on charter schools; journalistic organizations such as the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the National Press Foundation, and the International Center for Journalists; and a variety of other groups creating news content or working on journalism, such as the Leo Burnett Company, an ad agency that Gates commissioned to create a “news site” to promote the success of aid groups. In some cases, recipients say they distributed part of the funding as subgrants to other journalistic organizations—which makes it difficult to see the full picture of Gates’s funding into the fourth estate. https://www.cjr.org/criticism/gates-foundation-journalism-funding.php

[Winehole23]

Gates’s generosity appears to have helped foster an increasingly friendly media environment for the world’s most visible charity. Twenty years ago, journalists scrutinized Bill Gates’s initial foray into philanthropy as a vehicle (https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1029180416481589035) to enrich his software company, or a PR exercise (https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/aug/25/guardianleaders1) to salvage his battered reputation following Microsoft’s bruising antitrust battle with the Department of Justice. Today, the foundation is most often the subject of soft profiles and glowing editorials describing its good works.


During the pandemic, news outlets have widely looked to Bill Gates as a public health expert on covid—even though Gates has no medical training and is not a public official. PolitiFact (https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/may/14/facebook-posts/no-evidence-gates-foundation-will-profit-coronavir/) and USA Today (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/05/14/fact-check-anthony-fauci-bill-gates-wont-profit-remdesivir/3120063001/)(run by the Poynter Institute and Gannett, respectively—both of which have received funds from the Gates Foundation) have even used their fact-checking platforms to defend Gates from “false conspiracy theories” and “misinformation,” like the idea that the foundation has financial investments in companies developing covid vaccines and therapies. In fact, the foundation’s website and most recent tax forms clearly show investments in such companies, including Gilead (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/health/gilead-remdesivir-coronavirus-nebulizer.html) and CureVac (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/world/europe/cornonavirus-vaccine-us-germany.html).

In the same way that the news media has given Gates an outsize voice in the pandemic, the foundation has long used its charitable giving to shape the public discourse on everything from global health to education to agriculture—a level of influence that has landed Bill Gates on Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/powerful-people/list/)’s list of the most powerful people in the world.

[Spurtacular]

Copy pasta. Fun.

[Winehole23]

Copy pasta. Fun.What did think of the article you didn't read?

[Spurtacular]

What did think of the article you didn't read?

It seems that you want to sound the alarm without actually sounding the alarm.

Months or years from now you bump a thread like this as an I told you so. But meantime you're playing it down by making no pointed commentary of your own cos muh democrats and muh fair media and muh Biden. :lol

[Winehole23]

It seems that you want to sound the alarm without actually sounding the alarm.Hmm, what would sounding the alarm look like? Would it be something more than posting an article critical of Bill Gates buying favorable coverage for his philanthropic projects?


Months or years from now you bump a thread like this as an I told you so. But meantime you're playing it down by making no pointed commentary of your own cos muh democrats and muh fair media and muh Biden. :lolHow am I playing anything down? I reposted an article that singles out Bill Gates and NPR for scrutiny. Had I wanted to mute the story, I wouldn't have posted it. :lol

[Spurtacular]

Not getting sucked into your doldrums, blakehole.

But :lol that you posted a fresh Exhibit A on the heels of your meltdown after being called out on pulling your punches.

[Winehole23]

Not getting sucked into your doldrums, blakehole.

But :lol that you posted a fresh Exhibit A on the heels of your meltdown after being called out on pulling your punches.Sometimes you barely make any sense, Spurtacular.

[Spurtacular]

Sometimes you barely make any sense, Spurtacular.

Leave the cheap come-ons to Chump.

[Winehole23]

^^^ running on empty

[Spurtacular]

PolitiFact (https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/may/14/facebook-posts/no-evidence-gates-foundation-will-profit-coronavir/)
and USA Today (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/05/14/fact-check-anthony-fauci-bill-gates-wont-profit-remdesivir/3120063001/)(run by the Poynter Institute and Gannett, respectively—both of which have received funds from the Gates Foundation) have even used their fact-checking platforms to defend Gates from “false conspiracy theories” and “misinformation,” like the idea that the foundation has financial investments in companies developing covid vaccines and therapies. In fact, the foundation’s website and most recent tax forms clearly show investments in such companies, including Gilead (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/health/gilead-remdesivir-coronavirus-nebulizer.html) and CureVac (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/world/europe/cornonavirus-vaccine-us-germany.html).

So, you're making a case that there's a scamdemic in process, blakehole? Or you manstruating?

[Winehole23]

So, you're making a case that there's a scamdemic in process, blakehole?Nope, I just gave an example of how Gates-funded fact checking gets used to obscure his own financial interests. There's nothing in the article that suggests COVID-19 is fake.

[Spurtacular]

Nope, I just gave an example of how Gates-funded fact checking gets used to obscure his own financial interests. There's nothing in the article that suggests COVID-19 is fake.

COVID can still technically be real and be a central part of a scamdemic.

But thanks for making my point about sounding the alarm without sounding the alarm.

You do this as a matter of routine. It's quite sad, tbh. It's like inverse sperm shielding. :lmao

[Winehole23]

COVID can still technically be real and be a central part of a scamdemic.

But thanks for making my point about sounding the alarm without sounding the alarm.

You do this as a matter of routine. It's quite sad, tbh. It's like inverse sperm shielding. :lmaoI never meant to sound the scamdemic alarm, I think COVID-19 is a legit public health emergency. As with any emergency, the opportunities for grifters and power-mongers are legion. That doesn't make the pandemic or the public danger fake. In fact, a real emergency enhances susceptibility to scams.

[Winehole23]

btw, it's childish to expect everyone to be on the same page as you. it's also boorish to ridicule others merely for having a take that is not your own.

[BSfromTX]

Nope, I just gave an example of how Gates-funded fact checking gets used to obscure his own financial interests. There's nothing in the article that suggests COVID-19 is fake.


Your first statement is spot on. The second may be true, but the first supports the idea that our response to Covid is unwarranted and influenced by Gates and those like him. Gates is the second largest contributor to the WHO as well, an international bureaucracy that has heavily influenced the "Pandemic" and utilized to implement global governing through the guise of "protecting our health".

[DMC]

Because the integrity of the news is so pure now it's a shame to taint it with bias toward another funding source.

Also, if the wealthiest in the world suddenly have power, that'll be huge news.

[Winehole23]

Because the integrity of the news is so pure now it's a shame to taint it with bias toward another funding source.

Also, if the wealthiest in the world suddenly have power, that'll be huge news.Strawman and bloviation, a very typical DMC post

[Winehole23]

Your first statement is spot on. The second may be true, but the first supports the idea that our response to Covid is unwarranted and influenced by Gates and those like him. Gates is the second largest contributor to the WHO as well, an international bureaucracy that has heavily influenced the "Pandemic" and utilized to implement global governing through the guise of "protecting our health".Seems more like an "idea" to me than an actual international conspiracy to implement global government. Have you got more on that, or is it more or less frewheeling speculation?

Doesn;'t make sense to at least try to have internationally ordinated policies regarding global pandemics that are particularly dangerous to life and health?

[DMC]

Strawman and bloviation, a very typical DMC post

Whinehole, whining again about shit that's been in effect for eons. Rich people have power. Powerful people affect the world. The sky is blue.

[Winehole23]

Whinehole, whining again about shit that's been in effect for eons. Rich people have power. Powerful people affect the world. The sky is blue.It still makes sense to point out who's screwing who and how in a current events forum. You could get a nosebleed commenting on everything from 10,000 feet.

[Winehole23]

Whinehole, whining again about shit that's been in effect for eons. Rich people have power. Powerful people affect the world. The sky is blue.This is another iteration of boutons's fucked and unfuckable, tbh.

Trite.

[Spurtacular]

I never meant to sound the scamdemic alarm, I think COVID-19 is a legit public health emergency. As with any emergency, the opportunities for grifters and power-mongers are legion. That doesn't make the pandemic or the public danger fake. In fact, a real emergency enhances susceptibility to scams.

Maybe a scam was initiated in the first place.

[Spurtacular]

btw, it's childish to expect everyone to be on the same page as you. it's also boorish to ridicule others merely for having a take that is not your own.

I don't expect anything beyond willful naivete from you, tbh.

[Spurtacular]

Gates is the second largest contributor to the WHO.

ALL THAT MONEY COULDN'T HAVE INFLUENCED THE ALTERED OPINION FROM LESSER THAN THE FLU TO MILLIONS GOING TO DIE.

[Winehole23]

I don't expect anything beyond willful naivete from you, tbh.Finding you not credible isn't willful naiveté, it's just good judgment.

[Spurtacular]

It still makes sense to point out who's screwing who and how

Not if you can't tell your hand from your foot.

[Winehole23]

Not if you can't tell your hand from your foot.:sleep

[Spurtacular]

Finding you not credible isn't willful naiveté, it's just good judgment.

Yea, believe the snake oil salesmen. They're looking out for you. :tu

[Spurtacular]

:sleep

Agree. Not impactful enough.

NOT IF YOU CAN'T TELL YOUR HEAD FROM YOUR ASS.

[pgardn]

Good thing Trump stays clear of Fox News.
can you imagine the mess if a president tried to own The most popular news station.
imagine if he actually made calls expressing displeasure. or alternatively, if he hired people from that excessively popular news organization or even had people from his administration land a job in that news organization. I mean this could be a mess?”

[Winehole23]

Agree. Not impactful enough.

NOT IF YOU CAN'T TELL YOUR HEAD FROM YOUR ASS.Continue to talk about me if you'd like. I'll just admire your posts without further reply in this thread.

If you'd like to recur to the OP, I'd be available for that.

[Spurtacular]

Continue to talk about me if you'd like. I'll just admire your posts without further reply in this thread.

If you'd like to recur to the OP, I'd be available for that.

I'm sorry this is happening to you.

[boutons_deux]

WHO as well, an international bureaucracy that has heavily influenced the "Pandemic" and utilized to implement global governing through the guise of "protecting our health".

:lol W T F

[ElNono]

How bout Soros, though?