Bill Gates’s Carefully Crafted Image Is Cracking

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:05)
In the months since the Justice Department released the so-called Epstein files, some powerful people have lost their jobs and their credibility as a result of their relationships with him. But for a long while, it seemed that one important person who was not tarnished was Bill Gates.

**Emily Glazer** (0:22)
Bill Gates is one of the wealthiest people in the world. He's one of the most influential people in the world.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:27)
That's our colleague Emily Glazer, and she's been covering Bill Gates for years.

**Emily Glazer** (0:32)
Why hasn't Bill Gates' reputation just collapsed?
Like, how is he still doing all these interviews and speaking at conferences, when we had seen one by one other powerful people tied to Epstein resign, lose their jobs, getting investigated by international governments? How is Bill still kind of like doing his thing?

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:54)
And why does it matter? Why should we care about Bill Gates' reputation?

**Emily Glazer** (0:59)
His reputation matters because that is the thing holding a lot of his whole infrastructure together. That is why people still continue to meet with him, why he has influence over policy, why people want his money. I've talked to someone recently who said, when you say it's tied to Bill Gates, the answer is almost automatically yes. And I think a lot of people don't even realize how much influence and power he has because it's so carefully crafted and controlled.
And it turned out his reputation was crumbling. We just hadn't realized it yet because they were really trying to keep it under wraps. And once we started digging, it was actually unraveling bit by bit, by bit, by bit.

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:46)
Tomorrow, Gates is scheduled to appear in a closed door congressional hearing about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

**Emily Glazer** (1:54)
Look, there's more than a thousand emails connected to Bill, people who worked for him. There are a lot of questions leading up to this congressional questioning.

**Jessica Mendoza** (2:07)
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Tuesday, June 9th.
Coming up on the show, Bill Gates' carefully crafted reputation and how it's unraveling.

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**Jessica Mendoza** (3:14)
For many years, Bill Gates held the title of the world's richest man.

**Emily Glazer** (3:19)
So Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen way back in the day. A lot of the technology and hardware that we use either comes from them or inspired by them.

**Jessica Mendoza** (3:30)
But in the 90s, Microsoft faced several antitrust investigations. And in the hearings that followed, Gates became known for stridently defending the company.
Here he is responding to questions in a deposition.

**Bill Gates** (3:43)
I don't remember a specific document where I did. I don't know what you mean. You're asking me to recall every context where I might have ever used that shorthand. I said I don't recall using that word. I don't recall the date.

**Jessica Mendoza** (3:56)
After the hearings, Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft and turned instead to philanthropy. In particular, a new nonprofit he'd started with his wife, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The foundation focuses on global health and development, including the fight against childhood mortality and infectious diseases. Here's Gates talking about the foundation's work on malaria in a Ted Talk.

**Bill Gates** (4:19)
Now malaria is, of course, transmitted by mosquitoes. I brought some here so you could experience this. We'll let those roam around the auditorium a little bit there.
There's no reason only poor people should have the experience.

**Jessica Mendoza** (4:40)
Over the years, The Gates Foundation has grown. It now has an $89 billion endowment.

**Emily Glazer** (4:46)
There's a certain image of Bill Gates that exists. And as The Gates Foundation is getting into full swing, it's this whole other philanthropic side of Bill Gates.

**Jessica Mendoza** (4:59)
And in her reporting, Emily found that this transformation was very much by design.

**Emily Glazer** (5:06)
He has teams of people around him that are also carefully cultivating his image and reputation, almost like a rehab of going from younger, less polished bad boy Bill to ultimately create someone who is more approachable and calm and a philanthropist.

**Jessica Mendoza** (5:30)