A story that I had not heard about until I went digging was the news that MintPress News had revealed that Bill Gates has donated a whopping $319 million to media outlets. But what relevance does this have exactly? Rich people are always making donations to their desired companies.
As I had not heard much about this story in the news, it was obvious that I did not understand its relevance at first. Reading further along I learned that a lot of the receivers of Gates' grants were media outlets, such as CNN, NBC, and even international organizations like The Daily Telegraph. However, the donations were not simply funding the organization, but they were used to push issues that were "close to Gateses hearts". From gender equality to education reform, Gates had the power to spotlight things he deemed newsworthy.
As mentioned by the author of the original article, Alan Macleod, critics might see this as a billionaire being able to take advantage of the press and its audiences by "planting their ideas" using these generous donations, that an average person isn't capable of cooperating. Unfortunately, this is nothing new and it has always been common knowledge that money can get you things you want, especially in these amounts. In this case however, Gates was and has been funding some very important issues that I don't feel would hurt anyone by spreading.
This highlights just one more way the wealthy have an advantage over average citizens, and it reminds us just how much power they hold without holding a particular role like a political leader for example. Not to say that Bill Gates is just some guy, but it's easy to forget the way billionaires can spend their money according to their own agendas and the impact it has on others. I think the reason I didn't hear much about this story is because people often get tired of hearing about the billion things billionaires are capable of doing.
Hey Alejandra!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great post and an important issue to cover. I would be lying if I said I wasn't at all anxious about how billionaires can manipulate the media, but as you said, this has been a reality for as long as billionaires and the media have been around. I do think it is essential to understand while the issues they're covering certainly are important, their importance can be used as a guise to create anxiety among the public. This anxiety can be focus into investments or even policy that will bolster certain industries, and the article you picked even mentions this towards the end. This reminds me of how Al Gore made climate change a headliner topic every other week, and later go on to make billions in profit from the issue. This is not to say that this is what Gates is doing, but I think it is interesting how this type of power could be abused. I look forward to reading more!
Well at least Bill Gates is spending his money on something that I agree with--now only if he just spotlighted global warming. That said, of course, one has to imagine how these powers can be used by the opposite side for things you don't like. With that in mind it is kinda concerning but not too concerning as almost all media outlets basically have a bias of some kind.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see how much Billionaires benefit more than the working class. Donating to those issues is amazing but thinking of smaller organizations that just need the funding would to me be a better donation. Also knowing that people may receive tax breaks when donating large amounts of money has me side-eyeing donations. It raises the questions are billionaires genuinely interested in the many things they donate to or if they are looking for an easy tax cut that may make sense to the public.
ReplyDeleteI liked your post! It reminds me a lot of Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post back in 2013. Billionaires and millionaires shouldn't be able to own everything in the world. They become agenda setters that way. While I find the Gates philanthropy work noble, anyone with that amount of power could easily influence people negatively.
ReplyDeleteHi Alejandra! This is an interesting bit of news that I was actually unaware of. I normally don't pay attention to what billionaires are doing because most of the time their actions just rub me the wrong way. I was unaware of Bill Gates' beliefs and I'm honestly surprised to read about what issues he was pushing in the news. While I do agree with the push for gender equality and education reform, I still find it a little unsettling that any billionaire can just fund an organization in order to get what they deem important out into the news.
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