How D.C. Media Works: POLITICO Peddles HIV Narrative, Sponsored by HIV Drug Firm Gilead.

 The foreign-owned D.C. insider publication POLITICO has claimed that people charged with recklessly transmitting HIV are victims of “stigma.” But their recent, lengthy report was sponsored by Gilead, a pharmaceutical corporation that directly profits from the sale of HIV drugs.

This form of thinly veiled “advertorial” has become commonplace in corporate media, especially amongst D.C.-centric “news” outlets that often serve more as a form of lobbying for tech firms as well as Big Pharma.

The “in focus” report honed in on the personal stories of people like “James,” an African migrant charged in England for transmitting HIV not intentionally but recklessly – that is, by not telling a partner you are infected and failing to take precautions such as wearing a condom, exposing them to risk. POLITICO stressed how “warm and friendly” James was, and how being charged with reckless transmission was “terrifying” and “upended his life”, emphasizing the point by playing sad piano music under the audio.

The news outlet did not, however, speak to anyone who contracted HIV after a partner declined to inform them of their status, nor consider the impact of infection on their lives. The outlet – sold to German giant Axel Springer in 2021 – also downplayed the seriousness of HIV, citing activists who insist HIV isn’t “dirty,” nor “a disease to be ashamed of,” and still less “a death sentence.”

Which is where their sponsor, Gilead along with its commercial drugs, comes in.

“[T]here’s a lot of people that live really long, healthy, happy lives with HIV, and actually find it incredibly stigmatizing to see media reports and to see quotes from the police… saying that someone’s life has been destroyed by an HIV diagnosis, because that’s just not how a lot of people, or the vast majority of people, feel,” one anonymized interviewee claimed.

POLITICO’s subjects largely agreed that intentionally infecting someone with HIV should still be prosecuted, but there is pushback against even that in some left-run jurisdictions. California, for example, downgraded deliberate infection from a felony to a misdemeanor in 2018, and fully decriminalized knowingly donating HIV-infected blood.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/07/06/how-d-c-media-works-politico-peddles-hiv-narrative-sponsored-by-hiv-drug-firm-gilead/