12.16.09
Gates Foundation Funds Blogs to Promote Its Party Line
“I think he [Bill Gates] has a Napoleonic concept of himself and his company, an arrogance that derives from power and unalloyed success, with no leavening hard experience, no reverses [...] They don’t act like grown-ups!”
–Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson
Summary: Coverage regarding the Gates activities influenced by money, sometimes lacking disclosure altogether
BILL Gates has always liked to control what people say about him [1, 2, 3]. A few years ago Gates publicly stressed the importance of blogging in influencing people. He spoke to bloggers about this and it was around the same time that Microsoft bribed bloggers to publish favourable reviews of Windows Vista.
Yesterday we wrote about the Gates Foundation paying journalists (not just book authors) and now we find that it is doing the same with bloggers. It wants to control how people think and feel about the Gates Foundation. Long story short:
This almost looks like a real blog. But the Gates Foundation pays for it. It is mostly written by white men in suits.
As de facto minister of education [1, 2, 3, 4], Gates could use such grassroots AstroTurf support.
Yesterday’s post was actually about Gates and Monsanto and Glyn Moody is now pointing at this report, adding that it is “another reason Monsanto is evil: it encourages deforestation…”
Here is another new report from the Irish Times:
Monsanto tops poll of firms accused over climate change
MONSANTO, THE US multinational chiefly known for its aggressive marketing of genetically modified (GM) crops, has emerged as the surprising winner of the “Angry Mermaid” awards for business lobbyists against taking action on climate change.
Presented here yesterday by author and activist Naomi Klein, the premier award went to Monsanto in a poll conducted mainly on the internet. It won 37 per cent of the 10,000 votes cast. The runners-up were Royal Dutch Shell and the American Petroleum Institute.
Monsanto was nominated for promoting its GM crops and biofuels as a “solution” to climate change. “The expansion of GM soy in Latin America is contributing to major deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions,” according to Friends of the Earth International.
Last week we wrote about the Gates Foundation's global warming denial. █
More on Monsanto and Gates
- With Microsoft Monopoly in Check, Bill Gates Proceeds to Creating More Monopolies
- Gates-Backed Company Accused of Monopoly Abuse and Investigated
- How the Gates Foundation Privatises Africa
- Reader’s Article: The Gates Foundation and Genetically-Modified Foods
- Monsanto: The Microsoft of Food
- Seeds of Doubt in Bill Gates Investments
- Gates Foundation Accused of Faking/Fabricating Data to Advance Political Goals
- More Dubious Practices from the Gates Foundation
- Video Transcript of Vandana Shiva on Insane Patents
- Explanation of What Bill Gates’ Patent Investments Do to Developing World
- Black Friday Film: What the Bill Gates-Backed Monsanto Does to Animals, Farmers, Food, and Patent Systems
- Gates Foundation Looking to Destroy Kenya with Intellectual Monopolies
- Young Napoleon Comes to Africa and Told Off
- Bill Gates Takes His GMO Patent Investments/Experiments to India
- Gates/Microsoft Tax Dodge and Agriculture Monopoly Revisited
