“The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation declares its noble mission is to bring ‘innovations in health and learning to the global community,'” reports The Drudge Report.
Drudge reports, “But the world’s largest philanthropic organization also is among the organizations that collectively loaned nearly $400 million to MediaNews Group, Inc. — for the acquisition of newspapers in California and Minnesota!”
“‘I thought this foundation was all about starving kids, not starving newspapers,’ mocked one Seattle insider,” Drudge reports.
Drudge reports, “In April, MediaNews agreed to buy four newspapers, including the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS and CONTRA COSTA TIMES, from MCCLATCHY CO. for $1 billion. MEDIANEWS also bought California’s MONTEREY COUNTY HERALD and the ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS in Minnesota. It also own the DENVER POST.”
Full article here. If article is moved, find it via: http://www.drudgereport.com/
MacDailyNews Take: All you need to do is read some of those newspapers to understand why they need charity help. So what if a few kids starve to death ($400 million could buy a lot of sandwiches), at least there are still paychecks for hack writers. We can’t wait to read their unbiased reports about all the good done by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Control the media and you control the news–therefore, the people.
Maybe they’re giving free newspapers to the homeless to jumpstart their intersection windshield washing franchises. And the soy-based ink IS edible and non-toxic.
maybe they were giving macs too good reviews and bill wanted to put a stop to it
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> ive noticed the daily mail in England seems to feature a mac review of sorts in every sunday these days!
He who controls information, controls (perception of) reality for the ordinary masses!
That´s the way to go. Give a million, get a billion.
Charity gives good publicity. If there is no one who writes about your charity so buy a news paper and get everybody to write about your charity.
Have I mentioned that Bill Gate$ sucks?
MDN magic word: material
That´s the way to go. Give a million, get a billion.
Charity gives good publicity. If there is no one who writes about your charity so buy a news paper and get everybody to write about your charity.
Have I mentioned that Bill Gate$ sucks?
MDN magic word: material
If EVER there will be an instance in which the LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES rears its ugly head, it is the Bill and Melinda Gates Charitable Foundation.
Just wait until the Third World reaps the COMPLETE benefits of their free and easy spending, not the temporary, feel-good rewards. Entire nations of people who could never sustain themselves or their children in the past will suddenly be fat, happy, and disease-free . . . and still uneducated, unmotivated, oppressed, terrorized, and–eventually–slaughtered.
Just as before. Just as always.
But as least the Gates Foundation will feel better about itself, and that is–in fact–the real goal here.
Why does this stuff happen? Can’t Bill Gates just help people without an agenda attached to it? I have lost hope in all rich people, and our corrupt political system. Who’s next? Steve Jobs?
I don’t really understand Drudge’s point, but I really can’t stand consipacy theorists, if that is his angle. Has it occurred to Matt Drudge that a foundation with $17 Billion in assets need to invest that money somewhere? They don’t just leave it in a passbook savings account.
In essence, any of these large foundations (Gates, Ford, Annenberg, etc.) are private equity firms. They will invest in things that provide a financial return to the foundation.
Critic: As much as I am leery of anything MS-related, your comments are exactly what I was thinking too. I suppose there is the opportunity for Bill/MS to misuse their influence in such deals, but really the fact is, they need to invest.
Critic.. You are right. They have to invest it. So why are they not investing in companies who develop solar power or something. Why news papers = more influence?
Critic.. You are right. They have to invest it. So why are they not investing in companies who develop solar power or something. Why news papers = more influence?
i’m with critic. ALL foundations have investment portfolios to create returns that allow for their charitable work. This was a loan to the media group — not an ownership stake.
as much as I dislike Gates/MS, the Gates Foundation receives widespread praise from the public health community working on 3rd world health issues (–even from those whom it does not fund).
bostonian (and MDN) – the foundation is not paying for sandwiches. But it does fund other silly efforts like finding an affordable/practical cure for malaria, cheaper HIV treatment (and delivery), etc. Are you suggesting these countries are better off with no cures for these diseases? In relation to education, birth rates, etc., the Gates’ take the additional radical position that promoting a healthy population will reduce birthrates and create conditions that allow for education.
Admittedly Gates was late to the philanthropy world and his Foundation is not a fix for all that ails these countries, but by all accounts the Gates’ are serious and well-informed about their efforts.
Let’s consider the radical position that MS and the Foundation may be after different things.
The obvious reason Gates and his foundation are investing in newspapers and media is to make sure they spread their message. They care as much about that (if not more) than they do about helping less fortunate people.
I wouldn’t expect any less from a man that made his fortune by blatantly stealing the ideas of others…
As always, Bill is up with the latest media technology!
The article states that they also loaned some money to General Electric. MDN conveniently left that part out since it adds nothing to the everyone’s against Apple conspiracy theory. Additionally, it’s a loan, not a donation.
“Are you suggesting these countries are better off with no cures for these diseases?
Let’s not be naive or utopian here, OK? The more Third Worlders that become healthy enough to make more children–who themselves make more children, ad infinitum–the more PERMANENT, STABLE societal infrastructures are required to sustain them over time. Got it?
As Rwanda how they’re doing along these lines right now.
Do you seriously believe that massive infusions of medicine, food, and cash are going to suddenly and permanently transform the Third World into repositories of productivity, benevolence, happiness, and long life? For the love of Pete! Ask Bob Geldof how his “Live Aid” program fared AFTER he and the media departed for other, more interesting venues!
Unless the Gates Foundation is prepared to spend, monitor, and REMAIN forever in an area of poverty-eradication, it ain’t a’gonna’ happen. It never has. It doesn’t now. It never will.
Bill and Melinda are not the saviors of the Third World. THEY themselves are, and no one else. (My apologies if this opinion offends anyone’s do-goodist hopes and dreams for the day, but don’t worry–there will be another coming along tomorrow.)
critic>
Invest the money somewhere?
Sure, why not?
But can you explain buying three papers that serve the Silicon Valley community. It probably has no sinister motive, but it is a strange coincidence.
FUD,
GE has a media empire as part of it’s holdings. I didn’t see you mention that either.
Sounds a bit too much like a Citizen Kane fetish? I wonder who “Rosebud” really is? Is it Melinda or the OS?
I am very suspicious of the methodologies of the Gates Foundation. Here in California we vote on Bond measures, usually to raise money for school or road construction. State citizens are then taxed to pay for the cost of borrowed money. A few years ago a Bond measure was on the ballot to spend $3 BILLION for fetal stem cell research. Now, this is something that the Gates Foundation could have funded completely. Instead they provided roughly a half million dollars for an advertising campaign to convince Californians that fetal stem cells are a panacea and a No vote could only mean that you were a heartless bastard that didn’t care if Michael J Fox suffered from Parkinson’s Disease.
I see this funding of newspapers a futher step in a strategy of influencing public spending rather than providing direct support for causes. That is not charity. Gates could not be trusted as a business partner, and I don’t trust him as a philanthropist. He has a personality that must always “work the angles”.
The media… Ha Ha Ha… These days it’s supposedly become the most pursuasive and powerful mechanism on earth. I wonder if there are any special interest groups, etc., that realize this? Yeah, of course there are, and when you take the time to study the headlines and the bylines, a deep pit in your stomach starts to form. Could it be that a lot of the truths we’ve clinged to for so long are actually just the result of a concerted brainwashing (translation:self-serving) campaign? And who would do something like that…
as much as MS has been a huge setback for computer users, the Gates Foundation does truly great things for the human race. Bill Gates’ willingness to associate himself with diseases for which the solution is money is great. There is no reason anyone on earth should die because of malaria in the 21st century. Similarly, AIDS is a treatable and preventable disease. More money will find a cure. There are good drugs out there now, and better ones on the way. We need to get them here more quickly and to more people. Gates’ foundation will help millions of people have a chance at life and that is truly commendable.
That being said, this “loan” is so obviously open to criticism that one wonders why his foundation would bother. Surely there are other investment opportunities which don’t come with such potential for conflict of interest.
“The medium is the message” said old Marshall – now you know, get used to, it;s coming your way.
Anyone here who sees Bill Gates as anything other than as one of the most ruthless and manipulative enterpreneurs on the planet just isn’t looking. If you believe that Bill Gates is just a humble geek looking to help others in the world then you’ve just bought the image.
There is no ‘donation’ or charity from him that doesn’t have multiple purposes. If he just wanted to give money to charity, there are only about a million he could have quitely donated to…
“Sounds a bit too much like a Citizen Kane fetish? I wonder who “Rosebud” really is? Is it Melinda or the OS?”
Bill will be lying on his deathbed muttering the word “Longhorn” repeatedly under his breath.
“Bill will be lying on his deathbed muttering the word “Longhorn” repeatedly under his breath.”
Or possibly, “Dammit Fester, put the chair down. It’s over.”
Or more likely the final truth, “Soylent Green is Vista.”
mac user 47 If he just wanted to give money to charity, there are only about a million he could have quietly donated to…
he is the head of the wealthiest private charitable foundation. I’m pretty sure that he can’t donate to anything “quietly.” Further, it is not his money — it belongs to the foundation, which is run by a board of directors. Many other people have donated their money to this foundation so that redundancy can be minimized and efficiency improved in caring for world health problems. The foundation has selected some pretty massive problems to focus on. Sure there are others, but not many which are more pressing.
Anyone here who sees Bill Gates as anything other than as one of the most ruthless and manipulative enterpreneurs [sic] on the planet just isn’t looking. If you believe that Bill Gates is just a humble geek looking to help others in the world then you’ve just bought the image.
He is retiring from MS, so he no longer has entrepreneurial interests in that company. I think we all know that his personal legacy as MS chief will not be that great (this might qualify as the understatement of the year). I imagine that he has developed an interest in leaving a better legacy with his charitable work.
Yeah and to ensure his legacy looks good in ink, buy up the media.
Nice. Real nice.
Become the world’s wealthiest man by ruthlessly leveraging the world’s greatest monopoly for decades, condeming millions to use of inferior products, then use the untold Billions to tyr to buyback you reputation as really a giving it back good guy, and in the process buy yourself a lasting handwritten legacy.
Doesn’t Encarta imply that MS invented personal computing? Is there even a mention of Apple Computer?
Not Mac related in any way whatsoever.
On the hero’s tomb is written
Not what he was, but what he should’ve been
And nothing you can do will change the circumstances
Just a mild infuriation with statistics of sin
“Not Mac related in any way whatsoever.”
Yea, but I work for MediaNews so I’m glad it’s here. Also happy to be employed.
Typing this on a MediaNews Mac.
Similarly, AIDS is a treatable and preventable disease.
mike k, it’s obvious you’re not an epidemiologist. AIDS is a syndrome, not a disease. No wonder no headway is being made if people don’t even know what AIDS stands for.
There seems to be a conflict of interest in this newspaper purchase. San Jose Mercury News has always been anti-Apple. More of the same from Gates. Anyone who thinks his foundation is doing any good, name the specifics of one “good thing” it’s done. And why isn’t it helping out in this country?
Let people did in misery. It’s the only way they will learn to magically cure diseases and end droughts through mental telepathy. THEN they will start their own better schools using their massive cash inflow, and the children will be saved!
There is giving and there is giving and there is such a beast as a charitable foundation which gives and gets.
As the riches man in the world surely you can do something about your poor image.
– Hmm, what do you have in mind?
Well, you wouldn’t want to give x% to the gov’mint, would you?
– Heh, who would want to do that!
Precisely! The tax laws allow you to deny the gov’mint its rightful share by giving it to some one else as charity. Now … wait, hear me out. Think of all the kudos you’ll get…the gratitude of untold millions. It’s called “philantrophy.” And being a philantrophist sounds a hell of a lot better than being a “RECTUM” – a Retired CEO of a Troubled Unmanageable Megacorporation.
– Yeah, it’s become a pain in the ass. I want out.
Now here comes the good part. As you know, x& of your money is practically lost to the gov’mint anyway, right? Well, here’s a way you can keep some ownership of it. We stick it in a charitable foundation and we only have to distribute a certain percentage of the annual earnings to charity. It works like this….
“I don’t really understand Drudge’s point, but I really can’t stand consipacy theorists, if that is his angle. Has it occurred to Matt Drudge that a foundation with $17 Billion in assets need to invest that money somewhere? They don’t just leave it in a passbook savings account.
In essence, any of these large foundations (Gates, Ford, Annenberg, etc.) are private equity firms. They will invest in things that provide a financial return to the foundation.”
______________________
Uh, no, you’re wrong. This is a different kind of invesment – and it has nothing to do with direct financial return from investing in a media outlet. It’s an investment in information control. Newspapers are losing losing money hand over fist. There are all sorts of legitimate investments they could undertake if they wanted, and Bill’s friend Warren Buffet could certainly help with that. But the notion that he either puts his money into newspapers or else a “passbook savings account” is absurd. You don’t know anything about finances. Be quiet.
It must be some sort of tax shelter, that is why Warren Buffet is in for 30ish billion…
Its really a shame that MDN is reduced to poking fun at a charitable organization, using dubious claims from a highly questionable source.
This is not Mac news, this is not Windows news. It makes MDN look like petty children.
neomonkey: it’s obvious you’re not an epidemiologist. AIDS is a syndrome, not a disease. No wonder no headway is being made if people don’t even know what AIDS stands for.
you are right — i am not an epidemiologist.
I’m sorry … what was the rest of your point?
Jon,
A charitable organization, by the nature of its tax exemt status, is open to public scrutiny. If the Gates Foundation is using monies that don’t make sense to their charter goals, then it is worth examining.
That’s okay, mike k, not many people do get the mistake of equating HIV to AIDS. Read “Inventing The AIDS Virus” by Dr. Peter Duseberg if you want to find out.
Sparky.
You’re right. A charitable organization is open to public scrutiny, but MDN is hardly the forum.
Jon >
And a charitable organisation – which is receiving said tax privileges – that has been established (partially) in the name of the founder, continuing Chairman and largest shareholder of a company that is a convicted monopolist on two continents and that continues to take every opportunity to push the limits of legal business practice, both by the letter and spirit of that law, must be scrutinised to ensure that it is not simply acting as a cipher for the non-charitable interests and agenda of those who established the charitable entity.
If the Gates Foundation is lending money, it would be interesting to establish whether MediaNews is paying more or less than the market rate: if it’s less, one would ask why, and if it is considerably more, one could argue that the premium must be associated to the perceived level of risk which then calls the wisdom of such a loan into question.
Guys, you’re jumping to all kinds of unsupported conclusions here. The foundation made a LOAN to a company, and probably did so in order to make a profit on the transaction, thus increasing the assets of the foundation. There’s nothing wrong with that.
A charity, like any other organization, needs to find a way to sustain its operations. Some of them do it by soliciting donations, and this one does it apparently by participating in financial markets. It’s about the same as putting its idle cash into any other interest-bearing securities. If you think the foundation is just supposed to spend until it evaporates, you’re very naiive.
-jcr
Forget about the Contra Costa Times investment. Anyone ever heard of MSNBC.com?
Not that this is Mac related news in the least MDN, but since everyone else seems to be idiotically railing about how this is some influence-grab buy M$, I fugured I’d put my 2 cents in.
If you think about what the Gates Foundation usually does, and Bill & Melinda’s politics generally, it’s pretty obvious why they are doing this.
A strong, independent press goes hand in hand with a strong democracy. The current corptocracy-owned media outlets have made a mockery of that idea – in fact these papers were in danger of being sold off for parts, or otherwise absorbed into yet another conglomerate, unless an ‘angel’ was brought in. Enter Gates and MediaNewsGroup. Now, MNG is no ‘mom & pop’ organization, but they aren’t Disney/ABC, Viacom/CBS, or NBC/Universal either. From their mission statement:
“Our corporate mission is to be the leading provider of local news, information and services in our strategically located markets … We will continually strive to improve our profitability, while being a strong community partner and strengthening our work environment for our employees.”
http://www.medianewsgroup.com/AboutUs/
I think Gates saw a grand old paper like the San Jose Mercury News in danger and wanted to do something positive about it. By investing in keeping their (and all those other papers’) doors open, he helps keep the media industry in the US at least a little more diverse than it otherwise would have been, while at the same time (assuming the best) providing an investment income stream to the Foundation with which it can continue to do its usual good work.
There’s nothing insidious about it. In fact, it shows Gates is a much better phoilanthropist than he ever was a software engineer. Credit where it is due, people.
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Made quite a few spelling errors above, but “Now, MNG is no ‘mom & pop’ organization, but they aren’t Disney/ABC, Viacom/CBS, or NBC/Universal either.”
should be amended to “Now, MNG is no ‘mom & pop’ organization, but they aren’t Disney/ABC, Viacom/CBS, Rupert Murdock/FOX, or NBC/Universal either.”
The one I originally forgot is the worst offender of all.