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Shop NowThere’s a lot of misreporting in the legacy media over Politico subscriptions. Uncle Sam just canceled about $8 million worth of them. Contrary to popular belief, most of that money didn’t come from USAID, though some of it reportedly did. The bulk was paid directly by the federal government. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt straightened out some of the confusion.
Partisan news subscriptions
On Wednesday, February 5, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt fielded questions about the recently canceled Politico subscriptions. The press likes to characterize what they were hearing as “a right-wing conspiracy theory.” The conspiracy was cooked up by misinformed Democrats.
Liberals noticed that Politico missed a payroll at the same time USAID spending was frozen. That’s only a coincidence, Politico reports. Based on a “technical glitch.”
As Leavitt patiently explained to liberal reporters, the rumors swirling around social media about Politico and Associated Press subscriptions is partially correct. For years, both outlets have received millions of dollars from the federal government.
Some of that came from USAID but the contracts weren’t canceled as part of the funding freeze. They were terminated separately.
For all intents and purposes, USAID is closed for business. All their legitimate programs are in the process of being absorbed into the State Department, where they belong.
Democrats are screaming that the subscriptions weren’t part of the aid funding and they’re correct. On that point, anyway. “In reality, the payments represented the whole of the federal government’s subscriptions to the news outlets’ services.”
Subsidizing fake news
USAID wasn’t the only federal entity with expensive and unnecessary subscriptions to politically slanted news. “All federal agencies combined spent $8.2 million last year on Politico Pro.” That fact has been confirmed by USASpending.
Ms. Leavitt informed the press that she “had been made aware of USAID funding to media outlets, including Politico.” Some of that money may have been in the form of grants, but only to the tune of $80,000 or so. That doesn’t mean they’re in the clear.
By providing government staffers with complimentary news access, the Biden administration effectively was “subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers’ dime.” That, Leavitt insists, “will no longer be happening.”
If Democrats want to follow heavily slanted news sources, they can pay for it out of their own pockets. “The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now,” Leavitt added.
Reporters with the liberal outlets still couldn’t get the facts straight. Even after Leavitt’s clear explanation, they continued to get it wrong. Byron Tau, an investigative reporter at the Associated Press tried to get a good sound bite for his outlet.
“I looked at these contracts and I have my own fun fact,” he quizzed. “This is occurring because agencies (not just USAID) are buying subscriptions to Politico’s Pro editorial product, not because Politico is getting grants or other federal funding.” Right, Leavitt confirmed. That’s what I just said.
