Ep. 45: The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire, Part I - Bill Gates and Western Media
Added 2018-07-25 14:35:24 +0000 UTCRussia, as we all know, has sinister “oligarchs” whereas in the United States, we are told, we have “philanthropists,” “job creators,” and “titans of industry” who earn their wealth through hard work, moxie, and guile. Aside from a few cartoonishly evil billionaires – like the Walton family, Peter Thiel, and the Koch brothers – the average American has a warm and fuzzy feeling about the super wealthy.
The most notable of these Benevolent Billionaires is Bill Gates, whose foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, operates the largest overseas “nonprofit” regime in the world, worth over 40 billion dollars–– twice that of the next biggest foundation. The Gates Foundation receives almost uniformly softball coverage from the media, many of whom receive funding from Gates through various investment and donor arrangements, both from his personal coffers and the foundation that bears his name.
In this two-part episode we ask how much this network of patronage effects Western media’s overwhelmingly positive and uncritical coverage of Gates. How can one can be critical of this type of massive outsized influence without devolving into paranoia? What is the nature of the capitalist ideology that informs Gates’ so-called philanthropy? And how do his programs often harm those they allegedly aim to help?
We are joined this week by Dr. Linsey J. McGoey, associate professor of sociology at the University of Essex and author of the book, “No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy.”
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Guest
Linsey McGoey is a social theorist and an economic sociologist. She is a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Essex and a co-director of the Centre for Economic Sociology and Innovation. Her book, “No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy” (Verso, 2015) puts our new golden age of philanthropy under the microscope and reveals how the ideals of social justice are often too dependent on the strained rectitude and questionable generosity of the mega-rich.
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Show Notes
Power and Money Don’t Necessarily Buy Smart Philanthropy
Linsey McGoey | October 13, 2015 | The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Andy Beckett | October 24, 2015 | The Guardian
Have the Rich Become “Super Citizens”?
Lovia Gyarkye | May 12, 2017 | The New Republic
Who gets to define philanthropy?
Linsey McGoey | September 6, 2016 | Alliance
This Guardian Piece Touting Bill Gates’ Education Investment Brought to You by Bill Gates
Adam Johnson | September 4, 2016 | FAIR
The media loves the Gates Foundation. These experts are more skeptical.
Julia Belluz | June 10, 2015 | Vox
No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy
Linsey McGoey | December 15, 2015 | Philanthropy News Digest
Why Philanthropy Actually Hurts Rather Than Helps Some of the World’s Worst Problems
George Joseph | December 28, 2015 | In These Times
Linsey McGoey | November 10, 2015 | Jacobin
Messages With a Mission, Embedded in TV Shows
Tim Arango & Brian Stelter | April 1, 2009 | The New York Times
Plutocrats at Work: How Big Philanthropy Undermines Democracy
Joanne Barkan | Fall 2013 | Dissent
Andrew Carnegie | June 1889 | North American Review
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here.
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Comments
I have been blindsided by all the recent Gates-worship. Has no one else had to use Windows? Especially all throughout the late 1990s; I literally called him the worst at least once a week at work. My friends and family remember this, too. I don’t bitch much, but I hated him (and will forever because he deserves it!) for that awful, yet nearly inescapable product!
2020-03-13 22:50:09 +0000 UTCSo in other words, only the wealthy elites can organize or have input into societies direction. How is the billionaire club not a (non)labor union ? This comes down to preventing labor from having any power whatsoever as well as the citizenry not having political power. Another great show by the way.
David Blobaum
2018-07-25 22:54:17 +0000 UTC
