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Jeff C's avatar

Jeff wrote; "If corporate media adhered to ethics, they’d disclose their revenue sources. How much from each advertiser? How much from “news grants?” How much from the government? If we knew those things, we could make up our own minds about who and what to believe."

Corporate media is a good start, but it goes way beyond that. Yes the leftist media is bought and paid for, but does anyone think it stops there?

How much does Berenson haul in with his "tens of thousands of paid subscribers" on Substack? What were terms of his secret twitter settlement and how does that square with the expectations of people who contributed to his cause? Simple calculations based on public info says his Substack income alone is over a million a year. Does that influence him?

What about Daily Wire? It's now a huge financial entity lead by the never-wrong Ben Shapiro (just ask him). While they are generally a force for good, Shapiro pushed for vaccines (since recanted), is a Ukraine war hawk, and was insanely anti-Trump. Some of their positions just don't square with their generally conservative stance. Their books aren't public, we have no idea if someone else is pulling the strings.

Brietbart was bankrolled by Rebekah Mercer, a wealthy heiress who runs the Mercer foundation. Even the Federalist, which I love reading and agree with 95+% of the time, has secret financial backers. Sean Davis has said it's secret to protect them from left-wing harassment, which makes sense. But we don't know if that's the only reason, co-founder Ben Domenich is married to Megan McCain FWIW.

The point of all this is that this "news grant" type stuff isn't limited to the left and we all need to be very careful regarding what we take as truth. In my experience when an organization starts pushing a viewpoint counter to expectations, there is money behind it. National Review started toadying for Big Tech under supposed "free market" principles, it was only afterwards we found out they were receiving grants from Google.

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Julie's avatar

Safe travels Jeff. I am thankful for all you do. Happy Thanksgiving.

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