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by Dr. Joseph Mercola
September
07, 2020
from
Mercola Website
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Story at-a-glance
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By injecting millions of dollars into various
industries, companies and organizations, Gates has
risen to become one of the most influential
individuals in the world, and he's become
increasingly insulated from negative reviews thanks
to the fact that he also funds journalism
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Gates has given more than $250 million to media
companies, including BBC, NBC, Al Jazeera,
ProPublica, National Journal, The Guardian,
Univision, Medium, the Financial Times, The
Atlantic, the Texas Tribune, Gannett, Washington
Monthly, Le Monde, PBS NewsHour and the Center for
Investigative Reporting
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Journalistic organizations such as the Pulitzer
Center on Crisis Reporting, the National Press
Foundation, the International Center for
Journalists, the Solutions Journalism Network and
The Poynter Institute have also received grants from
the Gates Foundation
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also has an
agreement with Elsevier. Any research supported by
the foundation must be published "gold open access."
This means all Gates Foundation's sponsored research
is free for anyone to read - thus maximizing the
exposure of those studies
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Another recipient of grants is the Leo Burnett
Company, an advertising agency owned by Publicis,
the third largest ad agency in the world. Publicis
also funds the self-proclaimed arbiter of truth in
media, NewsGuard, and the newly launched "tool
against online health care hoaxes," HealthGuard
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I've written several articles reviewing
Bill Gates' control of
global health, technology and food policy agendas.
Financial
influence is, of course, at the heart of this power and
not-entirely-obscure influence...
By injecting millions of dollars into various industries, companies
and organizations, many of which further strengthen the connections
by interlinking and doing business with each other, Gates has risen
to become one of the most influential individuals in the world.
While he has faced public backlash a number of times in his career,
especially when he was CEO of Microsoft in the '90s, he's become
increasingly insulated from negative reviews, thanks to the fact
that he also funds
journalism and major media corporations...
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Buying
Favorable Press
In an August 21, 2020, article 1 in Columbia Journalism Review,
Tim
Schwab highlights the connections between the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation and a number of newsrooms, including
NPR.
In August 2019, NPR reported 2 how Harvard University's Opportunity
Insights program had successfully helped low-income families obtain
housing in wealthier "high-opportunity" areas identified by
economist Raj Chetty, who heads the program, thereby allowing the
children an opportunity to achieve greater success in life.
"According to
researchers cited in the article, these children could see
$183,000 greater earnings over their lifetimes - a striking
forecast for a housing program still in its experimental stage,"
Schwab writes. 3
However,
"If you squint as you read the story, you'll notice that
every quoted expert is connected to the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, which helps fund the project.
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And if you're really
paying attention, you'll also see the editor's note at the end of
the story, which reveals that NPR itself receives funding from
Gates."
NPR denies that funding had anything to do with its decision to
write the story, or its slant.
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Still, as Schwab notes, the article
is just one of hundreds NPR has reported that is highly favorable to
the Gates Foundation and the work it funds.
As such, it's part of a much larger trend, he says,
"with
billionaire philanthropists bankrolling the news."
Naturally, when
you hold the purse strings, you end up with a fair level of
influence as to what gets run.
This is precisely why I decided against allowing advertisers on my
website, opting to sell carefully vetted products instead. I never
wanted to end up in a situation where an advertiser might try to
influence my reporting by threatening to withdraw advertising.
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As noted by Schwab:
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"As philanthropists increasingly fill in the funding gaps at news
organizations... an under-examined worry is how this will affect the
ways newsrooms report on their benefactors.
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Nowhere does this
concern loom larger than with the Gates Foundation, a leading donor
to newsrooms and a frequent subject of favorable news coverage."
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Which Media
Corporations are Under Gates' Thumb?
Schwab reports he examined the recipients of nearly 20,000 Gates
Foundation grants, finding more than $250 million had been given to
major media companies, including,
The Gates Foundation has also given grants to charitable
organizations that in turn are affiliated with news outlets, such as
BBC Media Action and The New York Times' Neediest Cases Fund.
Journalistic organizations such as,
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the Pulitzer Center on Crisis
Reporting
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the National Press Foundation
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the International Center
for Journalists
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the Solutions Journalism Network
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the Poynter
Institute,
...have also received grants from the Gates Foundation.
Ironically,
"The foundation even helped fund a 2016 report
5 from the
American Press Institute that was used to develop guidelines 6 on how
newsrooms can maintain editorial independence from philanthropic
funders," Schwab writes.
The Gates Foundation has also participated in dozens of media
conferences, including,
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the Perugia Journalism Festival
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the Global
Editors Network
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the World Conference of Science Journalism,
...and
has an unknown number of undisclosed contracts with media companies
to produce sponsored content.
According to Schwab, the only contract that has been publicly
disclosed is one with Vox.
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An example of the advertising content
produced through this kind of contractual agreement is the 2018 Vox
article, 7 "Human Capital and the Benefits, Explained," which
explains how changing world demographics are changing the perception
of humans' value.
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Bias is
Clearly Evident
Upon scrutiny, it becomes abundantly obvious that when Gates hands
out grants to journalism, it's not an unconditional handout that
these companies can do whatever they see fit with.
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It comes with
significant strings, and really amounts to little more than the
purchasing of stealth self-promotions that are essentially
undisclosed ads.
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Schwab writes: 8
"When Gates gives money to newsrooms, it restricts how the money is
used - often for topics, like global health and education, on which
the foundation works - which can help elevate its agenda in the news
media.
For example, in 2015 Gates gave $383,000 to the Poynter Institute, a
widely-cited authority on journalism ethics... earmarking the funds,
'to improve the accuracy in worldwide media of claims related to
global health and development.'
Poynter senior vice president
Kelly
McBride said Gates's money,
was passed on to media fact-checking
sites...
Since 2000, the Gates Foundation has given NPR $17.5 million through
10 charitable grants - all of them earmarked for coverage of global
health and education, specific issues on which Gates works...
Even when NPR publishes 'critical reporting' on Gates, it can feel
scripted. In February 2018, NPR ran a story headlined 'Bill Gates
Addresses 'Tough Questions' on Poverty and Power.'
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The 'tough
questions' NPR posed in this Q&A were mostly based on a list curated
by Gates himself, which he previously answered in a letter posted to
his foundation's website."
Schwab also recounts the experiences of freelance journalists
looking into the,
"inadvertent consequences of the Gates Foundation's
relentless efforts to eradicate polio," who found their efforts
undermined when the Foundation "went over their heads to seek an
audience with their editors" rather than answer the questions posed.
In 2016, one of those journalists,
Robert Fortner, published an
article in which he examined the trend of news articles failing to
report financial ties to Gates...
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Among them were 59 news stories by
the
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
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The Tangled
Web of Gates' Media Connections
Another recipient of grants from the Gates Foundation is the
Leo
Burnett Company, an advertising agency that creates news content and
works with journalists.
The Leo Burnett Company, in turn, is owned
by Publicis, 9 the world's oldest and third largest advertising
agency.
Publicis also funds NewsGuard. 10
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On top of that, NewsGuard
and Microsoft - the tech company founded by Gates - are
also partners. 11
Other connections between
Gates and
NewsGuard include the following:
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The John S. &
James L. Knight Foundation Inc., a venture capital fund and
another of NewsGuard's investors, 12 has partnered with the
Gates Foundation on other media-related projects.
In 2013, they launched the Media Impact Project, housed at
the Norman Lear Center, which is part of the USC Annenberg
School for Communication and Journalism.
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The mission of
this project was to,
"advance a
better understanding of audience engagement and media
impact" by "measuring how media influences the ways
people think and act." 13
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NewsGuard
investor, the Blue Haven Initiative, 14 joined the
Gates
Foundation's Global Health Investment Fund in 2013 15 - an
investment fund that targets,
"high-impact technologies with
public health applications in both developed and emerging
markets."
Through these few
examples alone, you can see just how interconnected the tech
industry, media and health organizations are, and how through
interweaving connections they all stand to benefit from their
financial support of the self-proclaimed arbiter of truth,
NewsGuard,
and its recently launched "tool against online health care hoaxes," HealthGuard,
16
...which was launched June
02, 2020, in the middle of
the
COVID-19 'pandemic'...
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Gates'
Influence Extends to Scientific Journals
But there's more...
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also has an
agreement with
Elsevier, 17 enacted in 2015, which requires authors
to adhere to the Gates Foundation's open access policy when
publishing their research in any of Elsevier's 1,700 journals.
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(A
list of Elsevier journals and publications can be found on
Elsevier's website. 18)
Any research "supported in whole, or in part, by the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation" must be published "gold open access."
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This means
all of the Gates Foundation's sponsored research is free for anyone
to read and cannot be placed behind a paywall - thus maximizing the
exposure of those studies.
While ostensibly this would appear beneficial, these studies are
typically highly conflicted and promoting one of Gates' many
investments either directly or indirectly.
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From
Tech Geek to Undisputed Health Tsar
As noted by Schwab, Gates' injection of cash into
the media
landscape has undoubtedly,
"helped foster an increasingly friendly
media environment" for his various projects.
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To garner attention for the issues it cares about,
the foundation
has invested millions
in training programs for journalists...
Experts coached in Gates-funded programs
write columns that appear
in media outlets
from The New York Times to The Huffington Post,
while digital portals blur the line
between journalism and spin.
Seattle Times
This friendly media environment includes the widespread portrayal of
Gates himself as a 'health expert', despite the fact that he has no
medical background and is not a public official of any kind:
"PolitiFact and USA Today (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 and CureVac...
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News about Gates these days is often filtered through the
perspectives of the many academics, nonprofits, and think tanks that
Gates funds.
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Sometimes it is delivered to readers by newsrooms with
financial ties to the foundation."
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Gates
Foundation - A 'Structure of Power'
I believe that Schwab is correct when he states that most
journalists tend to,
"cover the Gates Foundation as a
dispassionate
charity instead of a structure of power."
This is problematic, as it
hides and discourages investigation into any number of possible
ulterior motives behind the Foundation's generosity.
In 2011, the Seattle Times raised concerns about the Gates
Foundation's growing media influence, stating: 20
"To garner attention for the issues it cares about, the foundation
has invested millions in training programs for journalists.
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It funds
research on the most effective ways to craft media messages. Gates-backed think tanks turn out media fact sheets and newspaper
opinion pieces.
Magazines and scientific journals get Gates money to publish
research and articles.
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Experts coached in Gates-funded programs
write columns that appear in media outlets from The New York Times
to The Huffington Post, while digital portals blur the line between
journalism and spin."
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Philanthropy as a For-Profit Business Model
"Insofar as journalists are supposed to scrutinize wealth and power,
Gates should probably be one of the most investigated people on
earth - not the most admired," Schwab writes.
Indeed...
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Many books could be written about
Gates' global spider web
of connections that tightly integrate,
health, technology, finance
and media for his personal agenda...
To be frank, they seem to form
the very framework for a global totalitarian regime. These
connections are also the foundation of his ever-increasing wealth.
As discussed in "How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health" and "Bill
Gates - Most Dangerous Philanthropist in Modern History?" Gates
doesn't merely hand out money from his foundation.
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The
Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, a separate entity that manages the
assets of the Foundation, invests in the very companies that are
given these grants.
In other words, in many cases, the grants handed out by the
foundation end up directly increasing the value of the assets held
by the trust.
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He even "donates" money
to corporations such as,
If donating to for-profit companies sounds oddly illegal to you,
you'd be right...
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Gates is a tax evader for doing so - he's simply
getting away with it. The nonprofit foundation is a disguise to
avoid taxes while funding the research arms of for-profit
organizations that his foundation is invested in.
Using nonprofit money to advance research for companies you're
invested in is also illegal.
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If you are as repulsed by the fact that
Gates is getting away with this illegal behavior as much as I am,
then I encourage you to contact the IRS Whistleblower Office and ask
them to investigate Gates' tax evasion.
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You can also file a consumer
complaint with the Washington State Attorney General's office.
Far from being a force for good, Gates appears to have chosen to use
his wealth and intellect to further a distasteful social control
plan to benefit his own nefarious agendas.
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Fortunately,
people all
over the world are finally starting to see his true colors...
And this
despite the fact that he can afford to buy good publicity, and has
been doing so for years.
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Sources and References
1,�3,�4,�8
-�Columbia
Journalism Review August 21, 2020
2 -�NPR
August 5, 2019
5 -�American
Press Institute April 20, 2016 (PDF)
6 -�American
Press Institute January 12, 2017
7 -�Vox
September 11, 2018
9 -�Publicis
Groupe Press Release April 29, 2010
10,�12,�14
-�NewsGuard
Investor List
11 -�Microsoft
Blog August 23, 2018
13 -�Knight
Foundation April 29, 2013
15 -�Bluedotlaw.com
September 30, 2013
16 -�NewsGuard
June 2, 2020
17 -�Elsevier
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Agreement
18 -�Elsevier
All Products
19 -�Elsevier
Gold Open Access
20 -�Seattle
Times Updated February 23, 2011
21 -�The
Nation March 17, 2020
22 -�Jacobinmag.com
November 2015
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