The brief nausea between Elon Musk and the news organization Politico makes something very obvious. Country governance is increasingly becoming the whimsical of online conspiracy theorists.
The incident began with two unrelated events. On Tuesday, Politico staff reported that the company had missed its salary. These issues were resolved later that day. Separately, Musk and his Doge team were spending in the guise of thwarting USAID, freezing its operations and reviewing how the money was being spent.
However, the X poster saw something more creepy about both facts. They said Politico hadn't paid for staff after they stopped the USAID money flowing. A more likely explanation is that news organizations rely on some kind of USAID money, and federal funds are poured into mainstream news organizations for better coverage, attacking Trump and Musk He concluded that he concluded.
Online Sleuths did its own research (i.e., looked into federal spending in the federal open database USASPENDING.GOV and found something to support their claims. It includes but is not limited to USAID. The federal agency paid $8.2 million last year for a subscription to news agency Politico Pro Service.
These payments were all paid by the entire federal government, and USAID spending was a small portion of that total (approximately $44,000 on several subscriptions over two years). And they were not grants, grants or gifts to exercise editorial control. They were regular transactions – paying for subscription costs for services provided by Politico Pro.
And it's not just politics – government users and agencies of all kinds find the services and coverage provided by media organizations, so as an investigative journalist, subscriptions to places like the New York Times, Axios, and the Associated Press Paying for subscription payments by Byron Tau pointed out Wednesday.
This appears to be unimportant for Musk, who quickly encountered these online plots and responded that he would close payments. “It's not an efficient use of taxpayer funds. This wasteful spending will be removed,” he said in a post claiming Food and Drug Administration employees are paying $517,855 for a Politico Pro subscription. I stated accordingly. Tesla CEOs spent most of the rest of their time reposting and amplifying posts about government payments to news organizations, NGOs and nonprofits.
Speaking from the briefing room, White House press chief Caroline Leavitt said “we are aware of the funds for the media, including Politico, who has seats in this room from USAID,” and said, “over $8.” He said. The $1 million taxpayer made to essentially subsidize a subscription to Politico on the American taxpayer dime would no longer happen. ”
By Thursday morning, President Donald Trump had weighed: “The left wing “lug” is known as “politico,” but appears to have received $8,000,000. Did the New York Times receive the money? Who else did it? This is the biggest scandal for all of them, and perhaps the biggest scandal in history! The Democrats can't hide it from now on. Too big, too dirty! ”
The whole incident is messy, but it illuminates a few things. The federal government and its agencies and departments are, of course, not obligated to subscribe to news organizations. Just as I can cancel a subscription for Mbi after seeing it, it's within their right to cancel a subscription if they want. material.
But this media scrutiny and the enthusiasm that followed began with a small number of conservative influencers and the average Joe posting their own thoughts and conspiracy webs online for Musk to see. It took only a few posts of masks that now seem to be wielding the infinite power of the federal bureaucracy, launching a new crackdown, and at least one federal office, the USDA, Payments are complied with and suspended. Marisa Cabas, an independent journalist. Another General Services Bureau is ordered to cancel “all media agreements” with each Axios, with the costs of agents, including Politico, its subsidiaries and the BBC.
For now, it's merely a subscription to the news services that were influenced by these posters. These companies are certainly going to be hit financially and could be followed by more media layoffs.
But they also summarise the risks of Musk and Kudji's enthusiastic drive, cutting federal funds for a variety of other purposes. Not only does there exist risks per state-of-the-art government administration, it also relies on people who leave the assertion “assuming this is accurate” to the foreword. It was created about important and valuable government services and programs without taking into account the negative and harmful effects they may have on everyday people.
At the very least, Musk is signaling through X's posting to force cuts and audits at the Department of Treasury, the Pentagon, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, and the Social Security Agency. Additional cuts may be coming in the labor and education sector. Have all the proposed reductions been scrutinized? Will certain reductions in programs or grants occur that are irreversible, as random trolls pay attention to masks? It's an accidental specific cut just What do Doge staff find? Or because social media detectives and co-conspirators can see and respond to their theories.
