Hypocrisy O’ The Day
“Accuse your enemy of what you are doing…..”–Karl Marx
Chelsea Clinton wants to talk about grifting. That’s just great.
The fruit, apparently, doesn’t fall that far from the global elitist narrative tree.
Perhaps looking to ride the coattails of those ganging up on “controversial anti-vaxx misinformation” (read: any uttered thought not handed down by Dr. Anthony Fauci from the heavens above) or perhaps looking to drum up support by her Twitter sycophants, Chelsea Clinton took to her Twitter account last week to lash out at Substack for providing a platform for free speech and for people to voluntarily subscribe to newsletters they’re interested in and willing to pay for.
Wow, sounds nefarious, Chelsea! Glad you stepped in.
The first daughter took exception with the “anti-vaxx grift” that is supposedly taking place on here on Substack, citing a Guardian article written last week as her source.
“A group of vaccine-sceptic writers are generating revenues of at least $2.5m (£1.85m) a year from publishing newsletters for tens of thousands of followers on the online publishing platform Substack, according to new research,” the Guardian wrote last week.
“Why is Substack facilitating science denialists’ ability to profit from destructive lies (and comfortable profiting themselves)?” Clinton asked.
The research for the article was performed by an organization called the Center for Countering Digital Hate (of course that’s what its called). Because if anything says “digital hate” nowadays, it’s considering both sides of a story before critically thinking and arriving at your own conclusions.
“How dare you!”
Specifically, the Guardian article called out Dr. Joseph Mercola and Alex Berenson, who each have tens of thousands of paid followers on Substack. The intense sleuthwork to break the “story” that these two are making a couple million dollars a year came from the super exhaustive task of multiplying “tens of thousands of subscribers” with the $6/month they charge, times 12 months in a year.
That information is readily available on Substack.
Huge exclusive, guys. To the victor go the spoils, The Guardian.
Several paragraphs into the Guardian article, Substack rightly fired back, reminding me of exactly why I chose this platform as an outlet for my content. Substack told The Guardian:
“As we face growing pressure to censor content published on Substack that to some seems dubious or objectionable, our answer remains the same: we make decisions based on principles not PR, we will defend free expression, and we will stick to our hands-off approach to content moderation.”
I find it hilarious that Chelsea Clinton would call writers “grifters” for selling their opinions on things.
Putting aside the fact that her parents have raked in tens of millions of dollars writing books, Chelsea herself has a long history of selling her opinions on things for money.
Back in 2015, Clinton Foundation Donor Penguin Random House announced a book deal with then 35 year old Chelsea. The details on the advance she was paid were kept under wraps.
“Penguin Random House has not disclosed how much Chelsea’s book advance is worth, but the Clintons have received some of the largest publishing advances in recent history,” the Washington Free Beacon wrote at the time.
It continued: “Chelsea’s book, It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going, is intended to educate young readers on themes such as climate change, gender equality, and non-communicable diseases.”
Wait a second. Climate change? Gender equality? Non-communicable diseases?
You mean to tell me Chelsea Clinton was literally selling her opinion on diseases half a decade ago and now she’s taken some indignant exception to others doing the same?
Clinton also penned the “She Persisted” book series starting in 2017, which was a successful series highlighting the plight of 13 remarkable women in history.
Then, in 2021, Clinton signed another 11 book deal for this feminist children’s series.
Clinton also earned a stunning $600,000 annual salary (hereinafter referred to as: a quarter-Berenson) at NBC News as a “special correspondent” starting in November 2011, while she was 31 years old.
There, she worked “on service-related feature assignments for NBC’s ‘Rock Center with Brian Williams’ until the show’s cancellation,” Politico reported. It lasted two seasons and was cancelled due to low ratings.
Williams was then suspended from NBC in February 2015 after claiming a military helicopter he was in during the Iraq War had been “forced down after being hit by an RPG”, which turned out to be a fabrication. He was earning $10 million per year at the time. When he returned to the air, he was demoted.
Clinton has also earned more than $9 million just for sitting on the board of media company IAC/InterActiveCorp since 2011. IAC is led by billionaire Clinton ally Barry Diller, who also chairs the Expedia board, where Chelsea also sits.
Clinton reportedly earned $300,000 for attending just six meetings as a Board Member of IAC in 2018, the Daily Mail reported in 2019.
“Some members of the Expedia board were only obligated to attend two meetings last year,” The Mail reported.
“Chelsea will soon own just over $400,000 of Expedia stock and shares in IAC that add up to an astonishing $6.3 million,” the report continued.
Clinton has also served on the board of Clover Health since February 2017. As of 2020, she held more than 685,000 options valued at about $4.6 million. Clover’s stock is down -85.5% since the company went public.
Her profile on the company’s website says she is a member of the “Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee”.
Clover’s board, including Clinton, was sued over its $3.7 billion go-public deal and also disclosed an SEC investigation in 2021.
The sweet gigs that just happen to keep falling into Chelsea’s lap have funded a lavish lifestyle for her.
As Alex Berenson pointed out late last week, Clinton is likely calling out grifters from a $10 million New York City apartment that the Daily Mail called in 2013 “New York’s longest apartment”.