FPI / June 11, 2023

Corporate WATCH

Commentary by Joe Schaeffer

Now that CNN has parted ways with CEO Chris Licht, can we all stop pretending that the former executive producer of Stephen Colbert’s bizarrely wooden establishment propaganda late-night “comedy” program was genuinely seeking to pivot the struggling cable TV “news” network from its stridently leftist tilt?

CNN’s cultural leftism is institutional. It is directly funded by ruling elites. Pushing out spent cartridges like Brian Stelter and Don Lemon does not indicate bold change so much as the removal of tired personalities that no longer moved any needles. Throughout Licht’s brief and stormy tenure, CNN remained CNN.

Case in point: Let us introduce you to “CNN As Equals.”

In September 2020, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation lavished CNN with a “grant” of $3.6 million to fund this international news venture until January 2024. This is the same CNN that in August 2021 aired a splashy, high-profile interview with Bill Gates conducted by star host Anderson Cooper in which the controversial multi-billionaire was allowed to publicly spin his discreditable personal dealings with notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. So much for journalism ethics.

A glance at the CNN “As Equals” webpage reveals what Gates is paying for:
 

As Equals is a CNN series that aims to reveal what systemic gender inequality looks like.

There is a gendered dimension to every one of our major global challenges including, but not limited to: climate change, economic or health inequality, the rise of authoritarianism, mass migration or algorithmic bias. Critical, tenacious journalism is required to expose it all.

With stories on underreported issues in underreported parts of the world, told by underrepresented voices, As Equals intends to spotlight taboo subjects, use innovative presentations and effect change.

The network predictably leans on the modern big-box journalism practice of utilizing a disclaimer to ludicrously maintain that outside funders have no say in the “reporting” they are bankrolling:
 

In October 2020, CNN announced that the series would expand with a new three-year grant of US $3.6m from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

That money – which can only be used by CNN for As Equals – will fund salaries and associated staffing costs; the reporting and production of journalism in multiple formats; the commissioning of freelance storytellers and the holding of events.

For the duration of the series, CNN will continue to provide As Equals with staff and logistical support.

Will the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have any influence on CNN's journalism?

No. As Equals' journalism will be completely editorially independent. All of the output from the series will be held to CNN's high standards and will be fair, accurate and responsible.

As with other grant-funded journalism, we will regularly report to the funder, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to demonstrate that CNN is spending the money in line with the purpose for which it was intended.

We’ll help CNN with its next report to Bill and Melinda: all good here, the money is being used to promote Cultural Marxism under the guise of international news:
 

Why focus on gender inequality?

For the past several hundred years, patriarchy has shaped the world. Most institutions and societal norms were created for men, by men....

As Equals intends to cast a spotlight on these issues and report on them in ways that deepens global understanding and produces tangible impact.

Will As Equals include trans people in its coverage?

As Equals is unreservedly committed to inclusivity. Our stories will not only show you what gender inequality looks like, but also how inequality is not just limited to one location or people, and why it persists around the world.

Want even more compromising situations? Meet the leading staffer at “As Equals.” CNN Senior Producer, Digital International Eliza Mackintosh “helped launch As Equals,” a “CNN series on gender inequality... now funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” her company bio reads. “Eliza also started CNN's award-winning daily Covid-19 newsletter.”

Let’s recap that quickly: the CNN employee who headed the culturally leftist globalist initiative funded by Bill Gates also crafted CNN's daily coronavirus newsletter. Surely no conflicts there: $3.6 million for her job, and she just so happens to write about an overhyped pandemic used to push experimental vaccines near and dear to the heart of the man who provided that $3.6 million.

Here's Mackintosh COVID “reporting” in July 2022:
 

The 'worst variant' is here.

In the meantime, vaccine makers Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax have already been testing updated versions of their vaccines, including some bivalent vaccines that target Omicron variants.

Repeated Covid-19 waves have left millions of people dead, with only vaccines helping to blunt the toll. Now the virus is spreading again – evolving, escaping immunity and driving an uptick in cases and hospitalizations. The latest version of its shape-shifting, BA.5, is a clear sign that the pandemic is far from over.

Oh, hey, here she is writing this in December 2021: Who loves you, Bill?
 

Making Covid-19 vaccines mandatory was once unthinkable. But European countries are showing it can work

And here is Mackintosh in a tweet last month expressing her agreement with a veteran colleague's notion that journalists should be biased:
 

Christiane @Amanpour addresses CNN's decision to host Trump town hall, delivering a masterclass in journalism and sharing her mantra: "Be truthful, but not neutral. Bothsiderism — 'on the one hand, on the other hand' — is not always objectivity. It does not get you to the truth." https://t.co/qzNroSnhOM

— Eliza Mackintosh (@elizamackintosh) May 18, 2023

Before the Gates Foundation stepped in to directly back “As Equals,” the initiative had been initially funded by the European Journalism Centre. That organization in turn is funded by the Gates Foundation and George Soros's Open Society Foundations. In other words, this was an elitist-supported project from the beginning.

CNN’s “As Equals” coverage mirrors the Gates and Soros agenda. Population control, transgenderism and the legalization of prostitution are all key planks of their societal transformation schemes. From the “As Equals” series: 2022: Pro-abortion: “A decision of 'love': Meet the women providing abortion access in the Netherlands,” a caption reads to a video clip that features a feminist activist clad in a T-shirt proclaiming “I will aid and abet abortion.” From the program:
 

[Polish abortion rights activist Kasia] Roszak, who now lives in Amsterdam where she works with Abortion Network Amsterdam, says she knows exactly how it feels to not have agency over her reproductive rights, which is one of the reasons she works to ensure access for anyone globally who needs it.

“We believe that abortions are part of life. It can be an empowering, positive experience. And if it’s not, if it’s something hard for you, then we’re going to give you space and validation of your feelings,” Roszak said. “I feel like it’s my responsibility to be able to share with people that there are options.”

2018: US must fund global abortions or there will be more global abortions:
 

Health worker Elizabeth Wanjiru was walking through the narrow streets of Kenya's largest slum earlier this year when she came across two schoolboys pointing at something in a muddy ditch. As she drew closer she saw it was the remains of an aborted fetus.

Dumped elsewhere in Kibera, the fetus had washed up in a narrow alleyway after a night of rainfall. It's something Wanjiru hasn't seen for years.

Wanjiru and other health workers in Kenya told CNN that the number of backstreet abortions have increased since the United States cut aid to family planning programs that provide abortion services, in addition to contraception, in the world's least developed countries.

Ushered in by President Donald Trump's administration, the Mexico City policy, or global gag rule, was supposed to reduce the number of abortions, but healthcare workers in Kenya say it's doing the opposite. The cuts, which left thousands of women in Kenya without contraception, have forced many to resort to risky, backstreet abortions as a form of birth control.

2022: Transgender propaganda:
 

What is gender?

The World Health Organization defines gender as the "characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed." It is a broad spectrum and includes roles, behaviors and other social norms that are associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy. One's gender can be in line with or different from one's sex assigned at birth as it is based on a person's deeply felt sense of identity.

In a nutshell, sex is more biological and gender more social.

2020: Legalizing sex work saves lives in Senegal: Senegal's legalization and regulation of sex work has been applauded for controlling the nation's HIV rate. At 0.4%, HIV prevalence in the country is significantly lower than many of its West and Central African neighbors; the average for the region is 1.5%, per UNAIDS. That figure is even higher in East and Southern Africa, where HIV prevalence is 7.1%.

To quote a network tagline: this is CNN. It is a funded propaganda weapon of a socially destructive oligarchical globalist elite. And it will remain that way, no matter which corporate creature replaces the hapless Licht in the executive suite.

Free Press International
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