The legacy media’s coverage of the whole COVID pandemic and the COVID shot mandates has been a disservice to their viewers / listeners / readers. They weren’t doing any kind of real journalism at any point – they were simply acting as a megaphone for the “official” narrative, with virtually no honest examination of the claims put forth by the government and corporations involved in the whole mess.
There were plenty of dissenters from the official narrative. Many were doctors and medical researchers with impeccable records and expertise, but their voices were silenced, shadow banned, or met with ridicule and threats of regulatory repercussion for their rebellion.
This is where local media could have stepped in as a counterbalance, since you’re talking about hundreds of outlets run by a wider variety of media companies. But it didn’t happen. Some of that could be attributed to younger and more inexperienced reporters and producers. But there’s another factor that’s seldom considered, and that’s economic survival.
Most TV stations try to do some sort of investigative stories and series but there’s one thing that’s totally taboo, and that’s investigating your biggest advertisers. It makes some sort of sense, since you have to pay the electricity bill.
How much of the advertising revenue these days comes from pharmaceutical companies? How much money rolls in from ads touting this new medication or that revolutionary pill? “Brought to you by Pfizer” pops up an awful lot, doesn’t it? But there’s another issue that crops up, and that’s cross ownership of publicly traded media companies.
Gray TV was the largest local broadcast group to enforce a COVID shot mandate, with over 190 stations and more than 8,000 employees. Who owns Gray stock? It turns out that as of February 13, 2023 that 71.06% is institutionally owned, which gives those institutional investors huge clout. Blackrock, Inc. (third largest, 6.10%), Vanguard Group, Inc. (sixth largest, 4.96%), and State Street Corp., (17 th largest, 1.99%) together own 13.05% of Gray.
Let’s talk Pfizer stock ownership. The biggest three are Vanguard (8.79%), Blackrock (7.71%), and State Street (5.12%), a 21.62% ownership stake in the company that has produced the most widely administered COVID shot on the market. These three interlinked companies also are the most influential financial holding companies in the U.S., giving them huge clout on the national policy level. What could go wrong?
That was rhetorical, of course. We already know what could – and has – gone wrong. Now we have to make sure those that caused the failure of one of the bedrock institutions that our society has depended up pay the price for their willful dereliction of duty.