Index Entries

August 2, 2021
Russia Today (RT)

News report about this Tweet by Representative Thomas Massie:

"Who pays the paychecks of the factcheckers? The vaccine fact checkers at @factcheck.org, who claim to be independent, are funded by an organization that holds over $1.8 billion of stocks in a vaccine company and is run by a former director of @CDCgov (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)."

"A US congressman has questioned the impartiality of FactCheck.org, which is supposed to tackle vaccine disinformation, because it's indirectly funded by jab manufacturer Johnson & Johnson...

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is one of the benefactors that owns billions in Johnson & Johnson stock. The foundation's CEO is Richard Besser, who is a former acting Director for the Centers for Disease Control."

On February 10, 2025, Richard E. Besser's bio on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website indicates he is the President and CEO, and he formerly served as the acting director of the CDC during the initial response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20250119213307/https://www.rwjf.org/en/about-rwjf/staff-and-trustees/president-richard-besser.html 

On August 7, 2021, the Our Funding page on FactCheck.org presented a Financial Disclosure for the 12-month period ending on June 30, 2021. According to the disclosure, FactCheck.org received $99,870 in funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20210807194406/https://www.factcheck.org/our-funding/ 

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation financial page shows their investment in Johnson & Johnson common stock in 2022 to be $2.145 million and in 2023 to be $1.699 million.

https://www.rwjf.org/en/about-rwjf/how-we-work/financials.html (see 2023 Audited Financial Statements)

 

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censorship,COVID-19,financial incentives influence