Trump and Musk are Pushing an Absurd Lie About Government and Media [View all]

[Nevilledog]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-musk-lie-government-funding-politico-1235258376/

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https://archive.li/JKn7q

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Fox News, Republican lawmakers, and countless prominent right-wing commentators across social media are pushing a ridiculous lie about the Biden administration funding the media.

It started on Tuesday when staff at Politico reportedly didn’t receive their paychecks on time because of technical glitch. The right began speculating that the delay was related to Musk taking a blowtorch to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with many pointing out that the government had ferried $8.2 million to Politico over the past year.

Musk — the world’s richest man, whose companies have substantially benefited from government contracts and subsidies — began amplifying the narrative on Wednesday, and it was off to the disinformation races, with conservatives using some truly hare-brained sleuthing to claim payments to Politico and other outlets prove the government and the media are working together nefariously to prop up Democrats and take down Trump.

The reality isn’t so scandalous. Politico is by no means a left-wing outlet, and it has often been criticized for being too deferential to conservative and corporate interests. It covers the machinations of Congress, more than anything, and it offers an extremely expensive “Politico Pro” service that many government offices use to track these machinations.

The $8.2 million figure represents the total spent by the entire federal government; USAID paid Politico only $44,000 from 2023-2024. The Washington Post points out that earlier this week the Trump White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director signed a $35,000 contract for a Politico Pro. Plenty of congressional offices pay for the subscription, too, including the office of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who posted yesterday that Musk was “exposing” Politico’s “grift.”

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