Billionaires like Bloomberg, Murdock, Buffet, Bezos, Soros, and a variety of others have mostly taken control of the world and are playing it like a chessboard. This often makes the bulk of us the pawns in their game.
Perhaps there is not much we can do to keep these individuals from doing what they do, but by educating ourselves, we can control our reactions to them and the situations we face. Knowing who they are and what they are up to gives us options and allows us to make better choices.
This article - "Who Owns the Media" by Brandon T. Ward offers a good foundation and references a Harvard Study on the subject. His list includes: Disney ; Comcast ; AT&T ; National Amusements, who owns CBS and Viacom ; Fox Corp ; E.W. Scripps.
In this article by the WebFX Team, the stats are a little different. They include Time Warner and Sony. In most of these conglomerates, Vanguard and Black Rock are some of the top shareholders. Any way you mix them, the inbreeding and the intent is obvious to anyone who is paying attention.These are the eyes, ears, and mouthpiece of the world.
Underpinning and standing over all this is a little-known private investment firm called Allen & Company. A modest little boutique investment bank founded in 1922, which does not even maintain a website. Allen & Company has been hosting the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho every year since the early '80s, and has regularly drawn high-profile attendees such as, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller, Michael Eisner, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Johnson, Andy Grove, Richard Parsons, and Donald Keough.
Allen & Company tends to advise multi-billion dollar mergers and acquisitions for folks like Google and Twitter, Microsoft, Walmart, and Verizon. They like to keep a low profile, which is why most people are not aware of them.
Mark Dice - is a Media Analyst, Author, and a rather Right-Winged Smart-Ass, who does his research and calls 'em like he sees 'em. You can click the following link to get his take on the Sun Valley Conference. Perhaps not everyone will appreciate his humor, and there are some folks who will certainly not appreciate his candor. The truth hurts when you're having fun.