How to Spot the Infiltration

Screenshot from Great Hill Partners Team page. — Screenshot from Great Hill Partners Team page

Originally published on my fb page May 18th 2020.

I want to know where my media comes from. Particularly if it's slick, hip, young, and seemingly radical. I want to know because I want to support honest media and I don't want to support capitalists in disguise.

You know The Root, Jezebel, Gizmodo, The Onion? They're all owned by parent company G/O Media. Who are G/O Media? They explain themselves on their website:

"[...]a powerful publishing platform to engage affluent and influential Millennials who crave our trusted, authentic and often-times irreverent news, entertainment and service journalism and experiences. This affords marketers with unparalleled reach and results among their most important consumer markets." https://g-omedia.com/

They are capitalists. Mega capitalists. Gearing their stories towards rich millennials who say "Orange Man Bad".

They say they hire independent journalists who are "beholden to no one". How can their journalists be independent when they work for a company which is owned by a giant parent company?

They also own Deadspin, Lifehacker, The Inventory, The Takeout, Jalopnik, AV Club, Kotaku.

G/O Media's CEO is Jim Spanfeller, a former Forbes media executive. He took over in 2019 and made big changes. Staffers said that he fired a bunch of the rank and file and hired a bunch of his old White male friends from Forbes and Playboy. Jim Spanfeller says G/O Media is now "profitable".

Deadspin published it's own expose of Jim Spanfeller because they knew they were on their way out: https://theoutline.com/.../8162/deadspin-new-owners-very-bad

G/O Media is owned by even more giant grandparent company Great Hill Partners. Who are Great Hill Partners? They are a billionaire private equity firm that believes in "our core values of integrity, teamwork, accountability, attitude, meritocracy, and a desire to win. We invest in high growth mid-market companies." They have over 75 portfolio companies and over 150 consolidating acquisitions. This is their team and I recommend you take a look at them because they're funding what you read in The Root, Jezebel, The Onion, Gizmodo: https://www.greathillpartners.com/team/

This is their website: https://www.greathillpartners.com/

I don't want to be manipulated into supporting capitalism. That is why I question all the media I see, not just the stuff I don't agree with. I don't want to live in an ignorant bubble. I don't want to be a capitalist's stooge.

That's why I get my media from independent sources.

So whenever I see what seems like a decent article from a capitalist source, I ask myself: Who wrote this? Why? What do they want from me? I recommend that you do that also.

Because here's what you need to understand:

It is profitable for billionaires to publish articles on online platforms that confront social inequities and environmental disaster.

How is it profitable? They make money from the advertising revenue that all our clicks generate them. They simultaneously sell our data for more profit. They also carefully feed us propaganda - that we believe because we trust platforms that write articles about social inequities - and that propaganda manufactures consent for their agenda to make even more money.

Meanwhile, those same billionaires have bought our politicians to ensure that social inequities and environmental disaster is NEVER addressed.

That way they can keep publishing articles about social inequities and environmental disaster, keep making ad, data, and propaganda money, and thus stay billionaires. They maintain their capitalist power over the rest of us in this way.

And with our clicks and our shares of articles and videos on their platforms, we support them every step of the way. We will never dismantle capitalism by supporting the very people who protect it.

Wake up.

Support actual independent journalists. Share only their articles and videos and documentaries. They are putting themselves in the line of fire to bring you the truth.

And one more thing:

Even with independent revolutionary journalists, we have to be cautious that we're not just listening to an echo chamber where they are reinforcing each other's message without being full informed because they don’t understand world history or the depths of white supremacist imperialism. So we have to question everything.

#SmashThePatriarchy #SmashCapitalism