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Ask HN: Why did Bill Gates stop tweeting?

4 points by ent101 3y ago

trompetenaccoun 3y ago
It's more effective PR paying the media, which then report in your favor. Gates "donates hundreds of millions of USD going to practically every major outlet in the West, even European ones like BBC, Le Monde and Spiegel. Here's a link, it took me a bit to find even though I already knew about it. I didn't see a single MSM outlet covering this: https://www.cjr.org/criticism/gates-foundation-journalism-funding.php https://www.cjr.org/criticism/gates-foundation-journalism-fu...
- gnicholas 3y ago
  Just to clarify, he donates hundreds of millions in the aggregate, not to each outlet.
- defrost 3y ago
  Reading your link, I recently examined nearly twenty thousand charitable grants the Gates Foundation had made through the end of June and found more than $250 million going toward journalism. [ ... ] For example, in 2015 Gates gave $383,000 to the Poynter Institute, [ ... ] and noting that it was written in 2020 and discusses examples from 2015 it appears that the Gates foundation donates at most $50 million / annum (perhaps less) to a broad range of media outlets across numerous countries. The 'complaint' isn't specific to the Gates Foundation: And that speaks to a larger trend—and ethical issue—with billionaire philanthropists’ bankrolling the news. The Broad Foundation, whose philanthropic agenda includes promoting charter schools, at one point funded part of the LA Times’ reporting on education. Charles Koch has made charitable donations to journalistic institutions such as the Poynter Institute, as well as to news organizations such as the Daily Caller News Foundation, that support his conservative politics. And the Rockefeller Foundation ... For balance it's relatively easy to make a case that the combined Koch donations to think tanks and news outlets since the 1970s have been far far worse by magnitudes for humanity in toto than anything yet revealed about the Gates foundation. The Koch brothers very nearly singlehandedly tanked public transport in the US and delayed action on non fossil fuel climate technology for four to five decades while encouraging greater and greater excessive use of carbon based fuels.
pinewurst 3y ago
No one actually cares beyond the other tweeters?
paulpauper 3y ago
It has only been a few months
dezb 3y ago
twitter is a tiny tiny tiny "potential audience" and is predominantly a very small "niche" audience of American's that the Gates charity is likely loathed by and thus twitter as a tiny app / website offers little to no value to an organisation like the Gates Foundation who can get million fold more value from normal media comms / marcoms and better bang for their buck than the loathing hater filled tiny little dying twitter app / website.. twitter is all but dead anyway..

4 points by ent101 3y ago

It's more effective PR paying the media, which then report in your favor. Gates "donates hundreds of millions of USD going to practically every major outlet in the West, even European ones like BBC, Le Monde and Spiegel. Here's a link, it took me a bit to find even though I already knew about it. I didn't see a single MSM outlet covering this: https://www.cjr.org/criticism/gates-foundation-journalism-funding.php https://www.cjr.org/criticism/gates-foundation-journalism-fu...

gnicholas 3y ago
Just to clarify, he donates hundreds of millions in the aggregate, not to each outlet.
defrost 3y ago
Reading your link, I recently examined nearly twenty thousand charitable grants the Gates Foundation had made through the end of June and found more than $250 million going toward journalism. [ ... ] For example, in 2015 Gates gave $383,000 to the Poynter Institute, [ ... ] and noting that it was written in 2020 and discusses examples from 2015 it appears that the Gates foundation donates at most $50 million / annum (perhaps less) to a broad range of media outlets across numerous countries. The 'complaint' isn't specific to the Gates Foundation: And that speaks to a larger trend—and ethical issue—with billionaire philanthropists’ bankrolling the news. The Broad Foundation, whose philanthropic agenda includes promoting charter schools, at one point funded part of the LA Times’ reporting on education. Charles Koch has made charitable donations to journalistic institutions such as the Poynter Institute, as well as to news organizations such as the Daily Caller News Foundation, that support his conservative politics. And the Rockefeller Foundation ... For balance it's relatively easy to make a case that the combined Koch donations to think tanks and news outlets since the 1970s have been far far worse by magnitudes for humanity in toto than anything yet revealed about the Gates foundation. The Koch brothers very nearly singlehandedly tanked public transport in the US and delayed action on non fossil fuel climate technology for four to five decades while encouraging greater and greater excessive use of carbon based fuels.

pinewurst 3y ago

No one actually cares beyond the other tweeters?

paulpauper 3y ago

It has only been a few months

dezb 3y ago

twitter is a tiny tiny tiny "potential audience" and is predominantly a very small "niche" audience of American's that the Gates charity is likely loathed by and thus twitter as a tiny app / website offers little to no value to an organisation like the Gates Foundation who can get million fold more value from normal media comms / marcoms and better bang for their buck than the loathing hater filled tiny little dying twitter app / website.. twitter is all but dead anyway..