Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Age When Press Organisations Are Run by -- Not Just Funded by -- Plutocrats



Summary: Today's news sources are increasingly being centralised and put in the hands of fewer individuals who can afford the luxury of controlling information

Pierre Omidyar is not the only super-rich person who pretends to be the voice of the people (to the point of sort of monopolising Edward Snowden's leaks). Bill Gates is not the only big source (just biggest) of bribes to press outlets and blogs, either. A lot of today's biggest media bodies (AP, Reuters, CBS etc.) are managed or funded by firms in New York City or Canary Wharf in London. The mainstream media is literally run/owned by corporations which are financial (like Bloomberg) and some are run by CIA partners (like Washington Post, now formally owned by Bezos of Amazon). Those very same people and organisations are behind the banking embargo/blockade against real new organisations (in the public's interests) like Wikileaks, not to mention the censorship and Web shutdown (also induced by Amazon). Surprisingly, a lot of people don't know it. Even the BBC, which British citizens are forced to subsidise/fund, is officially run like a company with its own agenda. Real journalism in the UK is now equated with terrorism [1, 2, 3].



Back in the days before the pseudo spokesman for the poor became even richer by selling the work of her exploited volunteer writers to the Microsoft-friendly AOL [1, 2, 3] she was meeting with and grooming another pseudo spokesman for the poor, the world's richest thief (hiding behind his tax exemption instrument, the Gates Foundation). Like-minded people, no doubt...

Well, Arianna, whose special relationship with Bill Gates we wrote about before [1, 2, 3], is having another go exploiting writers and selling agenda. The Guardian, which was bribed by Gates (see articles about it in The Guardian Wiki page), says she will use a war criminal and the world's biggest thief to attract writers. As Glyn Moody put it, "Gates?? Blair??? speaking power to truth, clearly..."

The other day we wrote about Microsoft's special relationship with power through surveillance, citing the ties with Ford. Someone from there was rumoured to be considered for CEO position at Microsoft (succeeding Gates and another criminal, Stage Ballmer). As Ryan put it, this man, Alan Mulaly, "did his job for them already. He got their software into Ford cars."

In order to understand how those in power get served we need to see how they are connected, who they meet, and who at the end of the day owns or manages sources of information (or disinformation). There are two sides (or more) in every story, but sides can be 'vanished' when one has an agenda. It's censorship and bias by omission.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part VIII
By Dr. Andy Farnell
GNU/Linux Reaches All-Time High in Europe (at 6%)
many in Europe chose to explore something else, something freedom-respecting
Techrights' Statement on Code of Censorship (CoC) and Kent Overstreet: This Was the Real Purpose of Censorship Agreements All Along
Bombing people is OK (if you sponsor the key organisations), opposing bombings is not (a CoC in a nutshell)
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 24, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, November 24, 2024
Gemini Links 25/11/2024: Purity and Cory Doctorow's Ulysses Pact, Smolnet Portal and SGI
Links for the day
Patents Against Energy Sources That Reduce Pollution
this EV space (not just charging) is a patent mine field and it has long been that way
DARPA’s Information Innovation Office, Howard Shrobe, Values Compartmentalisation But Loses the Opportunity to Promote GNU/Linux and BSDs
All in all, he misses an opportunity
Wayland is an Alternative to X
the alternative to X (as in Twitter) isn't social control media but something like IRC
BetaNews, Desperate for Clicks, is Pushing Donald Trump Spam Created by LLMs (Slop)
Big clap to Brian Fagioli for stuffing a "tech" site with Trump spam (not the first time he uses LLMs to do this)
[Meme] Social Control Media Bliss
"My tree is bigger than yours"
Links 24/11/2024: More IMF Bailouts and Net Client Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/11/2024: Being a Student and Digital Downsizing
Links for the day
[Meme] The Most Liberal Company
"Insurrection? What insurrection?"
apple.com Traffic Down Over 7%, Says One Spyware Firm; Apple's Liabilities Increased Over 6% to $308,030,000,000
Apple is also about 120 billion dollars in debt
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 23, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, November 23, 2024
[Meme] GAFAMfox
Mozilla Firefox in a state of extreme distress
Google Can Kill Mozilla Any Time It Wants
That gives Google far too much power over its rival... There are already many sites that refuse to work with Firefox or explicitly say Firefox isn't supported
Free (as in Freedom) Software Helps Tackle the Software Liability Issue, It Lets Users Exercise Greater Control Over Programs
Microsofters have been trying to ban or exclude Free software
In the US, Patent Laws Are Up for Sale
This problem is a lot bigger than just patents
ESET Finds Rootkits, Does Not Explain How They Get Installed, Media Says It Means "Previously Unknown Linux Backdoors" (Useful Distraction From CALEA and CALEA2)
FUD watch
Techdirt Loses Its Objectivity in Pursuit of Money
The more concerning aspects are coverage of GAFAM and Microsoft in particular
Links 23/11/2024: Press Sold to Vultures, New LLM Blunders
Links for the day
Links 23/11/2024: "Relationship with Oneself" and Yretek.com is Back
Links for the day
Links 23/11/2024: "Real World" Cracked and UK Online Safety Act is Law
Links for the day
Links 23/11/2024: Celebrating Proprietary Bluesky (False Choice, Same Issues) and Software Patents Squashed
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 22, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, November 22, 2024
Gemini Links 23/11/2024: 150 Day Streak in Duolingo and ICBMs
Links for the day