Misleading Publishing and Chronic Self-Deception
There’s far more journalistic fraud than anyone wants to admit
By David Marks
Note: David Marks’ article was published on Robert Malone’s Substack newsletter/platform, “Report from Planet Earth.”
Summary of the key points of the article:
– The article is about misleading reporting and chronic self-deception in journalism.
– The article was prompted by a surprising Guardian story about more scientific fraud occurring than acknowledged, given its past COVID coverage.
– The Guardian aggressively attacked vaccine skeptics while applauding mandates and new mRNA vaccines, later having to retract claims on infection prevention.
– Scientific sources pushing certain views face incentives to publish misleading research for career and financial gain.
– The Guardian took a $3.5 million grant from the Gates Foundation from 2020-2022 during pandemic coverage, when Gates also funded COVID vaccine development. The donation was specifically for “Global Health and Development Public Awareness and Analysis.”
– Private capital influence on major news sources like the Guardian makes truly objective coverage difficult through funding dependencies and control of information sources.
– Compromised news organizations like the Guardian committed fraud by uncritically pushing certain views over others during the pandemic due to financial conflicts of interest.
– Greater transparency around funding influences on media organizations is needed as they have become manipulative propaganda tools rather than objective news sources.
– The Guardian story noted scientific fraud occurs more than acknowledged, without acknowledging its misleading COVID coverage.
– Guardian editors aggressively attacked/censored those concerned about vaccine side effects, effectiveness, or other treatments.
– Private capital influence extends beyond direct funding to indirect control of major information sources like media, impacting individuals’ ability to make informed decisions.
– News sources supported financially by powerful interests pushing certain agendas will feel pressure not to contradict those agendas in their coverage.
– Albert Einstein’s warnings from decades ago about oligarchic control of information sources and its threat to democracy appear prescient, given examples like the Guardian’s coverage.
– Greater transparency around researcher and media/journalist conflicts is needed to increase public understanding of undisclosed agenda-driven influences.
– Uncritical parroting of certain views over others amounts to propaganda, not objective journalism when financial dependencies create clear conflicts of interest.
– The Guardian’s non-profit structure does not eliminate conflicts of interest created by large private donations pushing certain agendas.
– Gates Foundation donations to media outlets like the Guardian parallel its funding of pharmaceutical interests developing COVID products, creating linked conflicts.
– Private oligarchic influence threatens individual freedom and democratic decision-making by covertly shaping the information environment most citizens rely on.
– Financial dependence creates clear incentives for news outlets like the Guardian to avoid contradicting donor agendas in coverage, risking reduced funding otherwise.
– Outlets receiving large donations from interested parties face pressure not to critically examine related topics in a way that could embarrass or anger influential donors.
– Little factual analysis was done of viewpoint diversity or consideration of alternatives in the Guardian’s COVID vaccine cheerleading despite known researcher fraud issues.
– Failing to disclose major funding sources shaping editorial choices amounts to a form of information control in itself, compromising reader trust.
– News outlets receiving funding from powerful interests need greater balance, transparency, and skepticism to avoid becoming propaganda vehicles.
– Highlighting donor influences on media complicit in misleading the public helps expose how private oligarchies covertly undermine factual, informed debate.
Commentary by Dr. Thomas:
8/10/23
When non-profit organizations take large amounts of money from donors, they will likely be influenced to meet the information bias expectation of those donors.
The question is how to avoid being unduly influenced by such information.
The solution is not obvious.
1) Government solution: Pass and enforce laws requiring disclosing all donations that could bias reporting.
2) Caveat Emptor: The individual could learn to be cynical/skeptical of all he hears in the media, suspecting bias in all sources, not letting any news be accepted as true until a detailed disclosure of every reporter’s personal bias and bias of those funding the research and reports
3) Market Solution: News sources/reporters/media outlets compete for readership based on their reputation for their commitment to full disclosure and self-reflective reporting of bias.
None of these options seems practical. We live in a capitalist economy with a government overlay of regulation. People are greedy, hungry, or want to survive and live comfortably, and they must earn their living by pleasing someone. But, if pleasing people compromises the truth, this is not an honest living.
It’s easy to sell sex, candy, thrills, alcohol/drugs, and the potential for fame, riches, and power because people love pleasure. As long as there are people who will spend money to fill their hunger, others will be willing to feed it.
Should people just act differently? Probably. Should people “just say no” to unGodly sex, excess alcohol, and dangerous thrills? That would be nice, but humans are weak. The demonic voices speak in the ears of us all, tempting us to illicit pleasures. That will never change.
What if the culture changed its commitment from maximum sensory satisfaction to temperance? What if the culture recognized that the eyes and ears of God are omnipresent? What if Biblical morality and metaphor were taught in school, examined from the pulpit, and used as the standard of legislation? What if everyone knew that we are a spirit, living in a physical body, with animal hunger that drives us to fulfill them beyond the boundaries of health and Godly conduct? What if we, as spirits, aimed to control/master our hunger and only satisfy them in the ways of Godliness and realized that this was a prime directive of humanity?
When humanity governs itself along these ways of being and self-control, and the culture and government support the individual in the perfection of that self-control, we have the foundations for a righteous society where the individual chooses truth, temperance, and respect for neighbor.
The problem of money buying truth, as illustrated in the case of The Guardian, will persist forever as a primary problem and corroding influence until society establishes the honor of the truth as its primary principle. Until society uses the standard of God’s truth universally as the stated and exalted goal of its individual and corporate direction, the ideas and schemes of men will alternately attract the public and private imagination as solutions to the problems of the nation and group life.
As a society, we must choose to exalt God’s Word as the standard of our nation’s moral star to which we aspire. We must first desire it, and then we must implement it. We have a long way to go, given that generations of Americans have been indoctrinated to satisfy their lusts, their hunger for sensual satisfaction. But we have to start somewhere, and it needed to get bad enough, the fruits of this obsession with lust-satisfaction, that we as a culture decided to pursue another way. We now see the results, a culture in decay, and it is time to make the society-wide quality decision to implement Godliness in every individual conscience, in every public and private institution of learning, commerce, service, and government.
The problem of regulating the passions of men by the threat of law or the consequence of natural long-term repercussions is inadequate. The corruption of The Guardian by money, by the need to pander to its donor class patrons, is a sufficient illustration that law, financial disincentives, and natural consequences are inadequate feedback mechanisms to prevent the sale of truth for personal gain/survival/comfort.
Every social problem has the same solution. There is only one remedy that society must administer to the body politic, the human soul, and the group mind – absolute and complete dedication to living the Bible – pursuing, knowing, and living the will and way of God. The Bible is the only tangible reference available to man that embodies the fullness of God’s will and way. Its hologram encompasses all levels of individual and group interaction and guides toward its proper direction.
The solution to the problem of The Guardian, Fox, CNN, and elected officials, corporate CEOs, marketing departments, and employees who keep their job by pleasing their bosses is the same. We are all selling to satisfy the unrighteous hunger of men. That’s where the money is. It will all change when men are motivated by attaining perfection in Godliness. During the transition, we must each be willing to say no to lies. We must wean ourselves from surviving by telling lies (about vaccines, scientific research, product durability, product safety, and product functions…). This is a hard withdrawal. We have all become addicted. Under the threat of starvation and poverty, we must be loyal to the company, sell the company line to protect it, and protect our lifeline to survival. But selling the truth to survive has produced the social-economic-political mess we now live in. It has to stop sometime.
Can we withdraw a little at a time? Can we solve the problem or transition toward the truth if we only tell little lies or bend/abbreviate/focus away from the truth just a little? Will that be enough? Won’t everyone take advantage of the “suckers” that tell the truth and use this as an opportunity to lie to look better and gain market advantage? No, it must all stop – everyone must just stop the lies. We all have to stop lying about our product. Tell the truth. There is probably something good about it. Tell the truth about the good and bad, the advantages and disadvantages. The economy will redistribute. Resources will be reallocated. Some will be rich, and some poor because of the amount they serve the truth. The economy of honesty will look different than the economy of lies, half-truths, distortion, and distortion sold for cash. We must help each other transition to an economy of truth.
It’s time for America to transition from a national economy of wolf/liar-salesmen to an era of men serving each other and committing to living the way of God as our inner guide. The truth will prevail in God’s Kingdom, and honesty in commerce, personal contracts, and governmental mandate will usher in an era of prosperity and peace.