“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…