Bonum Certa Men Certa

Bill Gates Under Fire for Hijacking the Voice of the Poor

Masai girl



Summary: The world's richest monopolist loves to pretend that he is a representative of the world's poorest and he pays selected people to play along with this illusion

The Gates Foundation is not only a good lesson regarding the weakness of the corporate media but also the corruptibility of blogs because some of these too have been hijacked by Gates, who gave them money with strings attached. We covered some examples of that before. By seeding money the way he does (over a million dollars per day just for media), Gates is making the poor speak like (and for) the rich, pretending that bribing journalists and creating strings for them is actually helpful. Here is an insult to journalists, courtesy of the Gates Foundation:



Here is an interesting strategy or tactic on the part of the Gates Foundation. Instead of sending Bill and Melinda out to answer recent valid criticism of the Foundation, they send Jeff Raikes. Who would dream of arguing with Jeff? He always says that everything is all right.

In defending the Foundation's millions of dollars given to the press, Mr Raikes appears to call journalists "poor". “We feel a very strong responsibility to enable the voice of the poor,” he said.

Huh?


But wait. They are funding rich journalists too, not just poor ones to whom they provide training and instructions.

As one blog put it in the headline, "Is Gates Foundation Unethical Or Just Leading-Edge? See this post's core argument:

Case in point: The Gates Foundation. In October 2010, its partnership (funding) with ABC was celebrated as a way to bring information about third-world illness to the forefront of public discussion despite the fact that newspapers everywhere were cutting overseas coverage.

Now, The Seattle Times is questioning the ethics of the Gates Foundation and of the news agencies benefitting from its largesse because “To garner attention for the issues it cares about, the foundation has invested millions in training programs for journalists. It funds research on the most effective ways to craft media messages.”

That’s called marketing. Also, advocacy. Getting the word out about social problems is an important aspect of advocacy, even if it means training reporters to uncover the stories that need telling.

The Gates Foundation is ramping up advocacy by giving money to those – yes, for-profits – who can really get the word out. As long as they don’t dictate the contents of the coverage, how is this wrong? Does it differ from hiring a for-profit ad agency to put together an ad campaign? Or paying an event-planner to put on a gala? It’s about giving money to professionals in the hope of getting the job done right.

Is receiving money from a foundation going to affect the content of the news any more than the proceeds from a big advertiser do? Ah, now that is the ethical question and it is one the news media, not the foundation, must answer. The article should investigate whether both sides of the stories about health initiatives in Africa were examined.

Including whether the medical solutions supported by Gates are effective.

The article didn’t ask that question.

The tone of The Seattle Times article focused on criticizing the Gates Foundation for funding news reports, for partnering with a for-profit news organization, and for advocacy that is “ … essentially public relations: an attempt to influence decision-makers and sway public opinion. The ultimate goal is to boost funding and focus from governments … “


Remember that the Seattle Times too received money from Gates. This situation became so serious that even corporate press has begun giving it mainstream attention. FAIR complains too, and for those who do not know, FAIR is a highly regarded watchdog of journalism. To quote part of their assessment:



● Philanthropies have interests, too, that reporters are in the business of scrutinizing; but what if those deep pockets are bankrolling the show? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pushes projects from genetic engineering to charter schools, among other things, so when ABC News formed a “partnership” with the Gates Foundation, to “offset” costs of a series on “global health problems and their potential solutions” (NYTimes.com, 10/6/10), ABC News president David Westin felt obliged to note that the network would decide where to go and what to cover—right before saying that news execs met with a Gates official to “pick his brain” about…where to go and what to cover.


Shocking. Or not. This is how sad things are.

Recent Techrights' Posts

GNU/Linux Grows at Windows' Expense and Microsoft Trolls Infest and Maliciously Target Articles About It
Microsoft is - and has long been - organised crime
They Say I'm Mr. Bombastic
They didn't take good lawyers
 
Computers Got Smaller, So GNU/Linux Got Bigger
Many people here recognise the lack of urgency (or need) to get expensive new laptops
BetaNews is a Plagiarism and LLM Slop Hub, the Chief Editor Isn't Addressing This Problem Anymore
SS Fagioli is basically a parasite leeching off or exploiting other people's work
Links 09/06/2025: Chaos in Los Angeles and Hurricane Season
Links for the day
Links 09/06/2025: Windows TCO and Many Data Breaches
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VI: Political Stunts by Former President Edyta Demby-Siwek and the Connection to Profound Corruption at EUIPO
it's like a money-laundering operation where one politician rewards another at taxpayers' expense
Gemini Links 09/06/2025: Pipelines and Splitgate
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 08, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 08, 2025
Links 08/06/2025: Tiananmen Carnage Censorship Persists, North Korean Goes Offline
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/06/2025: Love as an Ethnographic Method and Monitorix Gemini-Frontend v0.1
Links for the day
Links 08/06/2025: Exposure of More GAFAM Surveillance and Social Security Records Compromised
Links for the day
Linux Foundation is a Mediator for Microsoft et al, Not for Small Companies That Support Rather Than Attack the GPL
Many people still wrongly assume that because it is called "Linux Foundation", then it is pro-Linux and represents the same mindset
This Past Friday, Confirming What We Said All Along About Brett Wilson LLP: It's Shrinking, Has Considerable Debt, Loss of Net Assets Despite the Microsoft SLAPP Money
The documents only became publicly available less than 2 days ago
Some of the Many Reasons We Sued Microsofters for Harassment
perpetrators of harassment
For 20 Years Many People Were Sharecropping for Canonical's Oligarch, Now He's Deleting All Their Contributions
"Ubuntu has erased instead of archiving the trove of material at Ubuntu Forums"
There Was Always Too Much 'Crazy Stuff' Going on Around Freenode
What many IRC users lost sight of
Exposing Crime is Not a Crime (It Never Was)
In the eyes of rich and powerful people, those who speak about their crimes are the "criminals"
GNU/Linux Distros Abandoning Microsoft GitHub
Will curl be next to leave Microsoft GitHub?
Expect More XBox Mass Layoffs Soon If the Rumours Are True
From a Microsoft media operative
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 07, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 07, 2025
Europe Needs to Move Away From GAFAM; The Sooner, the Better
Europe - not just the EU - must abandon GAFAM as soon as possible
The Issue Isn't GNOME's Promotion of Diversity But GNOME Corruption, Abuse, Censorship, and Worse
So-called "Conservative" (republican, pro-Trump, bigoted) people want you to think the problem with GNOME is politics
When the News Sources Become Scarce and Increasingly Full of Polluted/Contaminated 'Content' (With LLM Slop and Slop Images)
Integrity matters
"Linux" Sites That Spew Out LLM Slop
We're lacking enough material for another "Slopwatch"
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part V: Breaking the Law, Just Like EPO
We'll hopefully cover some of the pertinent details later this year
Links 08/06/2025: Security Lapses, CISA Cuts, and More
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/06/2025: Mime Types and Geminisphere Introduction
Links for the day
Links 07/06/2025: Slop Companies Retain All Private Data, More Books Banned in the US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/06/2025: "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" and "Wireless Earbuds"
Links for the day
Links 07/06/2025: More Rumours of Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's XBox Division, New COVID Variant
Links for the day
Drug Addiction is a Real Problem, It Destroys Families
a rather sensitive matter
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IV: Political Scrutiny and Errors/Inconsistencies in Official Documents
When such organisations receive scrutiny they start focusing on cover-up and muzzling of facts (or crushing people who say the truth)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 06, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 06, 2025