Tim Schwab

Serious question: why are we allowing oligarchs and influence-peddlers to 'donate' money to governments?

For years Bill Gates has normalized a pathway for the the super-rich to buy influence through such donations. The Gates Foundation has given well over $1 billion to govt agencies and ministries around the world, with particular influence over the US government....and also, oddly, China.

Now Congress is investigating. Read on!

https://timschwab.substack.com/p/congress-investigates-gates-foundation

Plz read my newest investigation! As political animus against oligarchy gains momentum, are billionaires like Bill Gates co-opting the movement through philanthropy?

I tell this story through Rutger Bregman, a man of many contradictions.

https://timschwab.substack.com/p/he-built-a-brand-criticizing-billionaires

Bill Gates pushed the limits of his oligarchic power, seeking to put himself and his philanthropy above the law. And the checks and balances of democracy denied him.

This is a big story---please read & share my newest:

https://timschwab.substack.com/p/gates-foundation-loses-diplomatic

Investigative journalism on the Gates Foundation is always difficult--b/c it means challenging the one-sided narratives most newsrooms push out. Now climate activists are adding to the misinformation, amplifying Gates's bogus claims on climate change. Read my newest investigation!

https://timschwab.substack.com/p/divesting-vs-greenwashing-are-blackrock

My newest investigation--please share!

Unverified, voluntary corporate promises have always been the wrong approach to fighting climate change. Isn't it time that fossil fuel divestment campaigns start holding BlackRock and Bill Gates accountable?

LINK: https://timschwab.substack.com/p/divesting-vs-greenwashing-are-blackrock

So cool! I'll be at Yale Law School next month, talking about billionaires & oligarchs--and Bill Gates's expansive, pernicious influence over health & politics.

Plus, I'll finally meet Linsey Mcgoey--- author of "No Such Thing as a Free Gift"--in person! Bloomberg's Sophie Alexander is also on the panel. Should be interesting!

Free and open to the public----please join b/c we are long overdue to finally have an open, honest debate about the Gates Foundation.

https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/yale-law-school-events/role-ultra-rich-health-and-politics

My newest piece--please read & share! As Trump dismantles foreign aid & global health, Bill Gates appears too busy promoting his memoir to notice the millions of lives at stake. At a point, doesn't he have blood on his hands?

Please read and share!

https://timschwab.substack.com/p/as-trump-attacks-foreign-aid-gates

My newest on Substack looks at the protesters who took over Bill Gates's book tour.

Try as he might, our 'good billionaire' can no longer hide from the growing chorus of critics calling him an oligarch. That's a very good thing.

Please read, share and subscribe!

https://timschwab.substack.com/p/climate-activists-disrupt-bill-gatess

NPR shamelessly promotes Bill Gates's new memoir but doesn't disclose to audiences the $25 million NPR takes from Gates Foundation? Is this propaganda or journalism?

At a moment when the Trump admin is attacking NPR, these ethics lapses are stunning.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/08/nx-s1-5288815/bill-gates-gets-personal-in-his-new-memoir-source-code

Times up, Bill Gates. You can no longer say that your critics are conspiracy theorists. Amazing protest of Bill Gates's obscene wealth and bogus philanthropy!

The emperor has no clothes

https://news.sky.com/video/climate-protesters-disrupt-microsoft-co-founder-bill-gates-as-he-spoke-at-a-university-13304976

I love this! Gates goes on book tour and he gets protested by climate activists:
“Bill Gates is not a climate hero,” one protester said. “Tax the rich, tax the motherf*cking rich,” the protesters chanted.

https://gwhatchet.com/2025/02/10/bill-gates-talks-new-book-trump-administration/

NPR, which has received $25 million from the Gates Foundation, once again delivers shamefully one-sided reporting

Want tough, independent reporting on billionaires and oligarchs? Subscribe to my Substack: https://timschwab.substack.com/

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/06/g-s1-46868/microsoft-bill-gates-trump-musk

Please read/share my newest piece: As liberals go to irrational lengths to separate the world into good billionaires and bad billionaires, they lose credibility and power

https://timschwab.substack.com/p/oligarch-shouldnt-be-a-partisan-term

Appears that @unherd has put my book review of Bill Gates's memoir behind a paywall.

If you can't access it, check out my Substack, where I give a brief recap of a simple concept:

Journalists are supposed to challenge power, not worship it.

https://timschwab.substack.com/p/my-review-of-bill-gatess-memoir

In an (uncritical) Washington Posts Q&A, Bill Gates seems to admit that he had a ghostwriter. "He would write it, and then I would edit it."

I know, you're not shocked. But---ethically speaking---it matters. The real author's name should be on the book.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/02/04/bill-gates-memoir-source-code/

Check out my review of Bill Gates's new memoir. Actually part one of a three-part memoir. B/c of course BG needs 3.

Basically every news outlet--NYT, New Yorker, Guardian et al--has fallen hard for Gates's 'look-at-me' routine. I'm calling bullshit

https://unherd.com/2025/02/what-is-bill-gates-afraid-of/

Cool to see my work cited--and my face published next to Bill Gates's---in the German outlet @dwnews!

Very rare for journalists to question or challenge Gates's 'good billionaire' routine. We should applaud independent journalism when we see it.

https://www.dw.com/en/bill-gates-and-the-image-of-a-good-billionaire/a-71436631

The Gates-funded BBC loves Bill Gates's new book. What a coincidence!

Gates Foundation has given $3.7million to BBC & $56million to BBC Media Action

Why doesn't BBC disclose this financial conflict? And why doesn't the BBC consider Gates's critics?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2p4p4l78zo