Credit: Photo by David Shankbone

The Gates Foundation continues to show what hypocrisy is all about. The 'guardian' (misnomer because The Guardian guards the rich), funded by Bill Gates, has just published a new Bill Gates-funded (with Gates ads) article bemoaning "corporate colonialism". No, seriously. Gates is trying to portray himself as part of the solution,

"Gates started bribing bloggers for PR several years ago, so he sure is trying to gag critics, still."Some recent PR with Charlie Rose in CBS achieved more or less the same. It was a one-hour hogwash for Gates, trying to portray him as perpetually good and a changed man with some hip "2.0" buzz term (pure PR was emanating from it as this had been a "controlled" interview -- that being a condition most probably). As Toby put it, 'Gates 1.0: "Technology is an awesome tool for stealing your money."'

Whereas, as he put it, 'Gates 2.0: "Still stealing your money, but now I can pay media to paint me as a saint."'

In IRC, Toby adds that "it's impossible to criticise him in public places any more" (although this is changing gradually).

Gates started bribing bloggers for PR several years ago, so he sure is trying to gag critics, still. Another strategy is to outnumber criticisms by spending massively on PR and media placements. It's a fight he can't win. It's something Monsanto had to learn the hard way.

Meanwhile, Gates' feminine alter-ego lobbies for his education takeover. There was a widely-covered (with PR) lobbying keynote by Melinda at a Duke graduation ceremony, as noted the other day (no-brainers like this one make headlines, along with PR that's shaped like a personal story).

It is gratifying to see one branch of the corporate press having the guts to publish this slamming of Gates' agenda in education. It starts as follows: "As the Common Core continues to insinuate its way into public education, its price tag and problems keep mounting. Reasoned opposition among conservatives and liberals, parents, teachers, policymakers, and citizens is also growing.

"Is Gates profiting already? He sure made a lot of money in recent years.""And with good reason.

"Concocted by the same expert cadre that’s brought us every post-1970 education boondoggle, and resting on the same gross unfamiliarity with actual classrooms and students, the arbitrary, biased, technology-laden, assessment-obsessed Common Core is the creature of the Gates Foundation, with entities like the Pearson conglomerate sitting at Mr. Gates’s right hand. Pearson is the largest textbook and education software publisher in the world, as well as the world’s dominant education assessment contractor. Mr. Gates’s connection to the computer and software business is also a matter of public record."

Over at a Seattle blog that we like, teachers help show how Gates profits from the lobby. It says the following: "The Community Center for Education Results (CCER) was responsible for creating the proposal to collect an extensive amount of student data on our children. This pertains to Bill Gates’ desire to collect student information for each child in this country that can be accessed by those producing and profiting from products to be sold to school districts."

Guess who benefits from it? As put here, the surveillance by private companies (privatising the education system for profit) was "started with a hundred million dollar investment from the Gates Foundation" (it's one among several).

Investment, eh? Is Gates profiting already? He sure made a lot of money in recent years. ⬆