Bill & Melinda Gates Sponsoring ABC News Health Coverage

NEW YORK — ABC News is announcing a yearlong project to focus attention on the diseases and health conditions that afflict the world's poorest people.

The series, "Be the Change: Save a Life," will begin in December and continue through 2011. The network said Wednesday that the project will be led by news anchor Diane Sawyer and ABC News Chief Health and Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser. It says the series will entail reporting from across all ABC News broadcasts and platforms.

A special website will be devoted to gathering stories and serving as an information clearinghouse.

ABC News plans to spend more than $4.5 million on the initiative. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $1.5 million more for overseas travel and production.

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ABC News is owned by the Walt Disney Co.

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Online:

http://www.abc.com

http://www.gatesfoundation.org

Comments

[littlebrowngirl]

04:15 PM on 10/10/2010

Good for them.

[battleofmarathon]

05:38 AM on 10/10/2010

I love how in every picture they never look rich, they never have. Modest, low key billionares who love to find ways to make their money work for good. Way to go Bill and Melinda, if only there were so many more of you.

[Nicole Dixson]

03:50 PM on 10/09/2010

It good to see people use their money for good causes. As it is THEIR money, I will refrain from suggesting ways I think it should be used.

[BlueSkyPilot]

07:03 PM on 10/08/2010

The sad thing is that about 3 billion people dont have access to things as basic as clean water.
If he gave all of his nearly 60 billion just to provide that it would not fix that problem which is a primary cause of the diseases in those areas.

[sturat]

12:53 PM on 10/08/2010

bill and melinda, i don't quite know what to make of these two.....
call me a cynic, but i keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

[vetxcl]

03:48 PM on 10/09/2010

here's a cynical explaination for you: even cheap laborers need to be healthy enough to put in ten or so hours of work.

[R U Sirius]

10:41 AM on 10/08/2010

Here's your role model, neo-con gazillionaires.

[hey0there]

12:45 AM on 10/08/2010

Notice how gates only cares for the very rich or the very poor?

[Gavin Saunders]

12:17 PM on 10/09/2010

That's a little nit picky.

[whiteshoesATL]

07:02 PM on 10/07/2010

I still dont trust'em

[Vikingdave]

11:54 AM on 10/07/2010

Light a candle, or curse the darkness. It's a decsion EVERYONE can make. Question is only which way you decide to go. But you knew that already.

[Cougar28]

11:46 AM on 10/07/2010

Gates has given a lot away. Not enuf in America though.

[Mij13]

02:06 AM on 10/08/2010

I think they're people who see themselves as citizens of the planet first. We need more like them.

[ChrisJones]

08:22 AM on 10/09/2010

Agree 100% Fanned and Fav.

[right Alice]

10:48 AM on 10/07/2010

There is definitely some big disconnect here.

[Red Russet]

10:21 AM on 10/07/2010

Bill and Melinda Gates are superb people, but why are donating their money to ABC/DISNEY for expenses? ABC can afford to pay for this themselves, and SHAME ON THEM for taking money marked for charity. Corporate greed knows no bounds.

[alterego55]

06:05 PM on 10/07/2010

It's their money and their charity. They give away about $3 million dollars per day. By charter, their foundation must give away all $35 billion dollars within 50 years after their deaths.

[vetxcl]

03:50 PM on 10/09/2010

huh?

[KaAp]

08:33 AM on 10/07/2010

Is he going to embark on a way to use his foundation to attempt to privatize health care the same way he privatized education? So, now that people like Bill Gates have proliterianized those in the education profession is this an attempt to further proliterianize those in medicine?

[battleofmarathon]

05:42 AM on 10/10/2010

Proliterianized? Are you Sarah Palin?

[KaAp]

05:34 PM on 10/11/2010

That is a real word ... It was a type okay fine proletarianized
Look it up in the dictionary and then look it up as an academic reference
which is one among many http://www.jstor.org/pss/3083243

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

10:30 PM on 10/06/2010

ABC News? You're serious? ABC News/Fox News-Lite? That ABC News?

The network that ran a made-for-tv movie that blamed 9/11 on President Bill Clinton?
The network that carries Good Morning American where Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts have guests like Glenn Beck - ripping Al Gore and Bill O'Reilley "grading" President Obama?
The network that had Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos gang up on Obama and and ask Hillary Clinton all the "easy" questions during their debate?

That ABC News???? I'm sorry. I don't watch much of anything on ABC any longer.

I don't trust them and I don't like them.

They can take that Jake Tapper and stick... well, you get the idea.

[battleofmarathon]

05:48 AM on 10/10/2010

You get out a lot?

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

02:12 PM on 10/10/2010

You read a little?

[Disciple1]

08:09 PM on 10/06/2010

I'm all for responding to the plight in needy places overseas, but don't forget our own suffering citizens and their children in Appalachia, Charleston (W.V.), Chicago, El Paso, East Los Angeles, etc.