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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
CNN says concern over massive government payouts to outlets like Politico is a 'false right-wing conspiracy theory'
2025-02-09
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] The federal government spent over $8 million on subscriptions to PoliticoPro during the Biden administration, a fact which was not known to the American public on the lam until it was revealed on Wednesday amid the fiscal investigations of the Department of Government Efficiency. In response to the critique from taxpayers, politicians and officials alike, Politico released a statement saying that the media outlet "has never been a beneficiary of government programs or subsidies."

Brian
"Mr. Potato"
Stelter called the claim that Politico was receiving government subsidies "rampant right-wing misinformation." He shared the memo from the outlet's heads, Goli Sheikholeslami and John Harris, which claimed that the outlet had not received government funding. The BBC also put out a statement to justify the funding that their BBC Media Action group has received from USAID.

Addressed to the "Team," that memo reads: "As surely many of you saw today, there was a spirited discussion at the White House and among officials connected to the Department of Government Efficiency on the subject of government subscriptions for journalism products, at POLITICO and other news organizations.

"This is a fine conversation to have, and we welcome it. The value of POLITICO subscriptions is validated daily in the marketplace. Some parts of today's conversation, however, were confusing and left some people with false understandings. For this reason, we want you to hear from us on several points. POLITICO has never been a beneficiary of government programs or subsidies—not one cent, ever, in 18 years.

"We have offered a professional subscription service, starting with POLITICO Pro, since 2012. It provides both private and public sector clients with granular, fact-based reporting, real-time intelligence, and tracking tools across key policy areas. We are proud of the value our POLITICO Pro platform and policy journalism gives to all subscribers. As a practical matter, the overwhelming majority of our professional subscriptions under POLITICO Pro are in the private sector.
Posted by:Fred

#5  "POLITICO has never been a beneficiary of government programs or subsidies—not one cent, ever, in 18 years."

No government programs or subsidies - you got that, you conspiratorial right-wingers? We launder *all* our money through our subscription service. Come on, it's not like we're amateurs!

This is why everyone is freaking out about the DOGE boys. Once they get done mining the databases, all these connections will be apparent.

Side Note: A bit of half-hearted poking around on the Politico website did not turn up a price for the Politico Pro subscription, although there is a link to chat with their sales force and request a 'demo'.
Posted by: SteveS   2025-02-09 21:44  

#4  The CNN definition of "right-wing conspiracy theory" seems to once again exactly correlate with "truth"!
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2025-02-09 13:55  

#3  CNN continues to try to gaslight us as DOGE shovels all the evidence out into the sunlight for public inspection. A theory is accepted or rejected based on evidence. We don’t have all of it, but we can extrapolate from what we have. We know that there is a $8M subsidy that was probably paying from 16 to 80 people. I don’t have Politico’s balance sheet, but the $8M will represent 10 to 30 percent of their revenue. Even if it’s 3 percent, that might be enough to make the enterprise viable. We can know more about the viability based on what they do going forward.
Posted by: Super Hose   2025-02-09 10:09  

#2  ...Trouble is, if we've learned anything over the last few years it's that when the other side starts hollering 'conspiracy theory', there's a damned good chance that it is, in fact, a conspiracy.

Mike

Posted by: MikeKozlowski   2025-02-09 04:35  

#1  $1,000 a plate dinners are about money, not food.

$8 million on subscriptions are about money, not subscriptions.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660   2025-02-09 01:02  

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