The Bought News: You get what they pay for

rowland · October 28, 2014, 1:05pm

In some countries, the news is really nothing but propaganda. For example:

insidephilanthropy.com/home/ … s-to.html#

But now that I have your attention, let me ask you whether you heard that a different funder, who also has a strong agenda on healthcare, just gave $1.3 million to NPR to report on this topic?

No, you probably didn’t hear about that gift either, by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—a grant that has caused zero controversy.

Come to think of it, I didn’t recall any controversy when RWJF gave National Public Radio $5.6 million to report on healthcare between 2008 and 2011, during a period when this was among the most politicized of all topics.

You’d think that somebody would at least have raised an eyebrow, given that RWJF is a strong proponent of the Affordable Care Act, as well as other healthcare policy positions on the progressive side of the spectrum.

God bless that foundation, if you ask me. But as a thought experiment, imagine if the Koch brothers had given the same amount of money to NPR to cover healthcare.

People would have gone nuts.

People like David Sirota. Earlier this year, WNET, the public television station in New York, returned a $3.5 million grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to report on public pension issues after Sirota wrote a piece rightly sounding the alarm about how a hedge fund guy with a clear agenda on pensions was essentially buying a platform on public television to bring attention to the pension issue.

Hokwongwei · October 28, 2014, 1:56pm

You should see how they do it in Taipei.

rowland · March 25, 2018, 9:18am

CNN, airports and the writing on the wall…

They actually pay for the airport monopoly. I wonder what the ROI is.

rowland · June 26, 2019, 4:07pm

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/afav/201906230011.aspx

New Power Party. That’s a kick ass name they got there.

rowland · July 2, 2019, 2:17pm

CAP gets buyer’s remorse…

rowland · November 25, 2019, 7:26pm

CTaitung · November 25, 2019, 7:51pm

yeah. might as well not read ANYTHING coming from Bloomberg (the news media) on any topic related to anything political.

rowland · December 20, 2019, 12:57am

rowland · October 7, 2020, 5:23pm

They’ve been monopolies for a hell of a long time. All that’s changed is now they care for some reason.

I suspect it’s all about who gets canceled and who does the canceling.