Big Pharma’s Billion-Dollar Grip: How TV Ad Spending Buys Media Silence and Corrupts Coverage – Whatfinger News' Choice Clips
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Big Pharma’s Billion-Dollar Grip: How TV Ad Spending Buys Media Silence and Corrupts Coverage

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Big Pharma spends over $10 BILLION a year on TV ads – not to inform you, but to BUY media silence & favorable coverage. Every dollar is a bribe to legacy media to shut up about their price gouging, corruption, and deadly products. It’s legalized censorship, run as :30 second spots.
In a eye-opening X post from conservative firebrand Rogan O’Handley, better known as DC_Draino, he spotlighted a disturbing graph from Americans for Pharma Reform exposing how Big Pharma funnels billions into TV ads—not to educate Americans, but to bribe legacy media into silence on their price-gouging schemes and deadly products. The graph lays it bare: In 2023 alone, pharma giants like AbbVie and Pfizer poured over $6 billion into ads across major networks, with Comcast raking in $1.08 billion (17% of total pharma TV spend) and Paramount Global close behind at $1.01 billion. DC_Draino nailed it: “Big Pharma has basically been buying off legacy media for years to make sure they don’t call out their dangerous drugs.” This isn’t just advertising; it’s legalized censorship, keeping networks fat and happy while working families foot skyrocketing prescription bills. And here’s the kicker— this racket is illegal in nearly every other country on Earth, but in Biden’s America, it flourished until patriots like RFK Jr. and President Trump stepped in to drain the swamp.
For decades, conservatives have warned about the unholy alliance between Big Pharma and the fake news media. These drug pushers don’t spend $5-10 billion annually on glossy commercials out of the goodness of their hearts. No, it’s a calculated payoff to ensure networks like CNN and MSNBC—plastered with Pfizer and Moderna spots—never bite the hand that feeds them. Take Tucker Carlson’s blistering takedown on Fox News: He exposed how Pfizer’s massive ad buys led to a total media blackout on a bombshell Project Veritas video showing a Pfizer exec bragging about mutating viruses for profit. Despite millions of views on X, the story vanished from airwaves because, as Tucker put it, Big Pharma’s power is “so over-the-top corrupt” that networks self-censor to protect their revenue streams. Why? Because pharma ads make up a whopping 30% of news show ad slots, turning “journalists” into pharma shills who ignore scandals like vaccine side effects or opioid epidemics.  Continued below this next clip
This influence runs deep, warping coverage to favor Big Pharma’s bottom line over American lives. Breitbart’s Peter Schweizer, a master at following the money, revealed how these ads create artificial demand for overpriced drugs, exploiting our third-party payer system where insurers (and taxpayers) foot the bill. Networks get hooked on the cash—nearly 31% of nightly news ad minutes in 2024 came from pharma brands—leading to softball reporting that ignores corruption. Remember the COVID hysteria? Media hyped mRNA shots while burying stories of injuries, all because Pfizer’s ad dollars demanded loyalty. As Liz Wheeler on BlazeTV pointed out, if RFK Jr. bans these ads, networks would finally report honestly on Big Pharma’s lies, from ineffective drugs to vaccine harms. Without that bribe money, the left-wing media echo chamber crumbles, exposing the fraud they’ve protected for years.
And let’s talk numbers—these aren’t chump change bribes. Big Pharma’s TV ad blitz tops $5 billion yearly, sometimes eclipsing their own R&D budgets. Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh hammered this home: AbbVie dumped $229 million into Skyrizi ads in 2022, spiking sales to $7.8 billion the next year after doubling the budget. That’s not marketing; that’s manipulation, turning doctors into “glorified drug dealers” as patients, brainwashed by jingles and celebrity endorsements, demand brand-name pills they don’t need. Meanwhile, families struggle with $500 insulin vials because that ad money isn’t lowering costs—it’s padding executive bonuses and buying media compliance. Sara Gonzales on BlazeTV ripped into commercials like Jardiance’s, where catchy tunes distract from deadly side effects listed in fine print. Producing these spots costs up to $3 million each, but the real expense is to our freedom: a captured press that won’t hold pharma accountable. Continued below this next clip
What’s infuriating is that this scam is outlawed almost everywhere else. Only the U.S. and New Zealand allow direct-to-consumer pharma ads; in the rest of the world, it’s rightly seen as predatory and illegal. Europe, Canada, Australia—they all ban it because it drives up costs, misleads patients, and corrupts healthcare. But here, thanks to Democrat-enabled FDA loopholes from the ’90s, Big Pharma runs wild. Tucker Carlson called it out: This uniqueness underscores pharma’s iron grip on D.C. lobbyists, who outspend every other industry to keep the cash flowing. RFK Jr., now HHS Secretary under Trump, is finally cracking down, proposing rules forcing ads to list all side effects—making them so long and costly they’d vanish. Doctors told Fox News this would bring transparency, ending the era where pharma ads hype cures while hiding risks.

The implications are massive for conservatives fighting the deep state. Big Pharma’s media control isn’t just about drugs—it’s about narrative dominance. During COVID, ad-dependent networks pushed lockdowns and mandates, silencing dissenters like RFK Jr. himself. Banning these ads, as Walsh argues, would deflate drug prices (no more hype-driven demand) and bankrupt biased outlets reliant on pharma cash. Imagine CNN without those Pfizer checks—forced to report fairly or fold. Trump’s MAHA initiative, with RFK at the helm, is exposing this rot, prioritizing American health over corporate greed. As Schweizer notes, it’s time to follow the money and end the exploitation.

This isn’t hyperbole; it’s a war on working Americans. While liberals defend Big Pharma as “science,” conservatives see the truth: a cartel buying silence to peddle poisons. DC_Draino’s post is a wake-up call—end the ads, break the control, and make America healthy again. With Trump back in charge, we’re finally fighting back against this corrupt machine.

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