Bonum Certa Men Certa

Bill Gates Pays National Television (This Time PBS) for Self-Serving Propaganda

PBS logo



Summary: Public Broadcasting Service (US) becomes another instrument with which Bill Gates is advancing his personal goals after a large sum payment

IS THERE any major television channel left which was not paid by Gates for some timely bias? Any list of such channels sure is running short. It's not only a US issue by the way. In Britain too Gates pays The Guardian, for example, to do this. As for Microsoft UK staff, let us not forget what they did in the national broadcasting company. The MSBBC keeps getting more Microsoft-biased and Channel 4 too becomes captive. In the US, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is the latest victim of Gates' PR offensive, which got covered in a lot of sites including this one which calls it "Gates Foundation Grant" rather than what it actually is. Some critics call it a bribe and since Gates also paid NPR (public radio) for similar work, trust is voided even in the national media.



PBS has received a nearly $500,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create new, educational multiplatform digital content to advance math achievement in partnership with New York City Department of Education’s experimental School of One (So1). New content will be created specifically for the personalized classroom instruction platform pioneered by So1 and distributed through the PBS Digital Learning Library (DLL).


Here is a site which calls it an investment:

Government budget-cutters may be hungrily eyeing funds for noncommercial TV and radio, but Bill Gates is investing in the service.


There is growing "[u]nease about the Gates Foundation support of media" and Paulson does it again, as we mentioned in the previous post:

Tom Paulson 'gets it'. And a few others in Seattle 'get it'. The development-philanthropy complex was not mentioned by Ike in his farewell address. How could he have imagined it? But now that it is a reality, there are a few critical and dissenting voices. Here is one.


Paulson's writeup about the PBS funding was noted in the previous post and later on he discussed ABC News in a separate new post about old news. "Gates-funded ABC series raises concerns about global health … and media" says the headline and to quote parts of his article:

But what may trouble others more were all the many references on the ABC web site to the Gates Foundation — including numerous video clips of Bill and Melinda Gates. Also, much of this series actually sounds like — and is — a pitch for donations to numerous charitable causes.

You may well ask: So Mr. Cranky, why are either of these a problem?

Well, for starters, not everyone agrees with Bill and Melinda when it comes to identifying either the primary problems or the best solutions in global health. That’s inevitable, and fine, but journalists have an obligation to remain independent of anyone’s agenda.

[...]

The Gates Foundation steers clear of such hot-button political issues and we’ll see if ABC News does as well. Another example of a potential “blind spot” is the Seattle philanthropy’s tendency to favor technological solutions — such as vaccines or fortified foods — as opposed to messier issues involving governance, industry and economics.

Will these messier issues get covered and, if so, will the Gates Foundation’s critics believe they are being represented fairly and adequately by independent observers?


When a "Public Broadcasting Service" becomes a Gates-funded service it's easier to explain who runs the country.

Recent Techrights' Posts

[Video] Leaving Microsoft Behind for the Sake of National Security
Threats to "National Security" aren't some users with an Android phone but Microsoft at the root of things
World Press Freedom Day: WIPO censors Debian suicide cluster
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 07/05/2024: Pulitzer for Supreme Court Expose, New Threats to Media Reported
Links for the day
 
Links 08/05/2024: Android Malware and "AI" Hype
Links for the day
[Meme] Technical Committee With People Who Are Not Technical
the computing/computer industry being occupied by people who lack suitable background
The Demise of Computer Science Education
Education is essential for the future; without it, whole nations will perish
[Video] Prisons for the Minds and for Tech Workers
Today's video talks about what happens to workforces (across disciplines) in recent years
[Meme] Struggling to Leave Its Nazi Past Behind
digital arson
Microsoft Declines to Talk About How Many People It Has Just Laid Off
Hours ago in IGN: "Microsoft did not say how many staff will lose their jobs, but significant layoffs are inevitable. IGN has asked Bethesda for comment. Microsoft declined to expand further when contacted by IGN."
Microsoft Windows in South America: From 99% to 87%
the latest from statCounter
It's Rather Obvious Why They Try to Silence Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen, and Daniel Pocock
Some of them already sent physically menacing messages to Daniel Pocock
IRC Network of Techrights Turns 3 (or 16 if We Count the Freenode Days)
In a few months IRC turns 36
Sedating Oneself (and Shareholders) With Fuzzy Buzzwords and Pointless Acquisitions
IBM trying to buy time
Clickfraud Spamnil Ran Out of Clickfraud Budget, Apparently
sooner or later charlatans and frauds run out of steam
Techrights Gets Under the Skin of Bad, Corrupt, Immoral People (That's a Good Thing)
Journalism is the lifeblood of democracy and free societies
Companies Do Not Shut Down Offices and Lay Off Staff en Masse (Morale and Reputation Issue) Unless They're in Deep Financial Trouble
Microsoft has been faking its financial performance for years
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 07, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 07, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
GNU/Linux and ChromeOS Now at 6% in France, According to statCounter
numbers from statCounter
Gemini Links 07/05/2024: Music Spotlight and Network Knobs
Links for the day
Only Weeks After Microsoft Closed Offices and Studios It is Closing Several More (Many Layoffs, Still Deeply Debt-Saddled)
When the sad news writes itself
Bolivarian Republic Of Venezuela: GNU/Linux Reaches 9% (ChromeOS Included)
Venezuela must have lost interest in some American proprietary software when users were locked out of their own data (Adobe) and the costs could no longer be justified
[Video] Microsoft is Like Big Oil, Big Tobacco, and Other Perpetrators of Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering
openwashing, Microsoft lobbying, and Microsoft subsidies (e.g. bailouts in the form of 'defence' contracts)
Security & Debian: Urgent: New Feed URLs after another WIPO censorship
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 07/05/2024: Smashing Windows (Moving to GNU/Linux) and Mastodon Time-wasting
Links for the day
Links 07/05/2024: Cheap EVs and Cloudflare Layoffs
Links for the day
Berlin police declined to investigate FSFE Nazi comparisons
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] Communities Governed by Parasitic Elements and Girlfriends (Who Can't Understand Those Communities)
Karen Sandler and Molly de Blanc present at DebConf18
[Meme] You Can't Kill an Idea (or Facts)
Thankfully, in Western societies, there's still due process, rule of law etc. You don't just hire assassins or imprison critics
[Meme] Software in the Public Interest (SPI), Inc, Values Articles of Daniel Pocock at ~$5,000 Each (and Fails to Hide the Facts)
we are laughing, not grieving
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 06, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, May 06, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
[Meme] About 2,564 Internet Sites Now at Risk of Hostile Takeover by Microsoft-Sponsored Software in the Public Interest (SPI)
WIPO censors Debian suicide cluster
Links 07/05/2024: Burning Plastic Waste, Facebook Censoring Politicians
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/05/2024: Smashing Windows (Microsoft Losing Users to GNU/Linux), Sixty Years of BASIC
Links for the day
Southern Asia is All Android (Majority) Now
It's looking better (almost) every month
Windows Already Down to 1% "Market Share" in Some Countries
it is a dying breed
Tesla Has Become a Ponzi Scheme or a 'Meme Stock'
They tell us Tesla is "worth" almost twice as much as a company that sold about 30 times more cars
For People at Red Hat "Job is at Risk"
Red Hat is consulting some notorious firms to implement cuts
Linux.com Became Mostly Dead, de Facto Marketing Site of "Linux" Foundation Products (Unrelated to Linux)
what has happened to the authoritative domain Linux.com
Microsoft GitHub: A Hair Salon Where You Get Awards for Nothing (NFT Vanity)
People aren't defined by some private (proprietary) database and Microsoft does not universally "score" developers
In Europe, Android is Bigger Than Windows (Android Now Measured at 45.1% Worldwide)
Right now in statCounter...
Links 06/05/2024: Al Jazeera Raided, Wildfire Season Coming
Links for the day
On Character Assassination Tactics
The people who leverage these dirty politics typically champion projection tactics
Links 06/05/2024: Scams and Politics
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/05/2024: Reading and Computers
Links for the day
United States Entering the $100 Trillion Debt Trap, We Compare GAFAM Debt
Google's debt is about 6 times less than Amazon's
GitLab's Losses Grew From $172,311,000 to $424,174,000 Per Annum
Letting this company have control over your (or your company's) development/code forge may cost you a lot in the future
statCounter's Latest: Android Bouncing to New All-Time Highs, Windows Down to Unprecedented Lows
Android rising
Can't Bear the Thought We're Happy and Productive
If someone is now harassing online friends, attacking the wife, attacking my family (not just attacking and defaming people I know online) there are legal ramifications
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 05, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, May 05, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Erinn Clark & Debian: Justice or another Open Source vendetta?
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work