3 ms·

White House says it will cancel $8M in Politico subscriptions

18 points by donsupreme 2y ago

onetokeoverthe 2y ago
Plenty of gov related media. FCW, Government Executive, Aviation Leak. If there's a dept budget for subs either cut it or not. Via Congress. Congress decides on budgets in an democracy. But not in an idiocracy. btw, both d and r teams are idiotic.
inverted_flag 2y ago
[flagged]
- smb06 2y ago
  OANN too: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/01/31/media/pentagon-press-rotation-defense-department https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/01/31/media/pentagon-press-rota...
  - rdist 2y ago
    You forgot the Huffington Post: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-pentagon-says-it-will-rotate-out-some-media-offices-2025-02-01/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-pentagon-says-it-wil...
legitster 2y ago
*Politico Pro, specifically: https://www.politicopro.com/pro-features/stakeholder-management/ https://www.politicopro.com/pro-features/stakeholder-managem... So lobbyists, consultants, and NGOs can still get access to the PR tool - just not the policymakers themselves.
afavour 2y ago
This is all just the dumbest knee jerk stuff. Politico didn’t make payroll a couple of days ago for some technical reason or another. But because the timing coincided with Musk and his minions invading USAID conspiracy theories immediately popped up: Politico is bankrolled by USAID! It’s a psyop! Of course the reality is incredibly boring. Politico sells PoliticoPro[1], “public affairs software”. The government (not USAID) was paying for that. Was it a good purchase? Are we getting value for money for it? No clue, but I’d bet the people that terminated the subscriptions don’t have a clue either. The hoarde demanded immediate action so action was taken. My bet is they’ll quietly resubscribe in a few months. [1] https://www.politicopro.com/ https://www.politicopro.com/
tamaharbor 2y ago
I think $8M is for a little more than “subscriptions”.
pentel-0_5 2y ago
Without seeing the value delivered for the service, it seems kind of pricey at first blush unless it was paying for multiple individual analysts for N accounts to give them credible, researched expertise as a service. Maybe they were paying for a zillion individual subscriptions? If so, perhaps a site license for $1-2 million would be more reasonable. Don't just throw things a way because the number is higher than X.
techapple 2y ago
Didn’t the CEO of the parent company of Politico recently call on all the executives to pray for president Trump? https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/politico-owner-pray-for-trump-mathias-dopfner-axel-springer-1234587243/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/politico...
croes 2y ago
Already debunked > USAID paid $44K to Politico, not over $8M as White House claimed. It was for subscriptions https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42977622 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42977622

18 points by donsupreme 2y ago

Plenty of gov related media. FCW, Government Executive, Aviation Leak. If there's a dept budget for subs either cut it or not. Via Congress. Congress decides on budgets in an democracy. But not in an idiocracy. btw, both d and r teams are idiotic.

inverted_flag 2y ago

[flagged]

smb06 2y ago
OANN too: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/01/31/media/pentagon-press-rotation-defense-department https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/01/31/media/pentagon-press-rota...
- rdist 2y ago
  You forgot the Huffington Post: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-pentagon-says-it-will-rotate-out-some-media-offices-2025-02-01/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-pentagon-says-it-wil...

legitster 2y ago

*Politico Pro, specifically: https://www.politicopro.com/pro-features/stakeholder-management/ https://www.politicopro.com/pro-features/stakeholder-managem... So lobbyists, consultants, and NGOs can still get access to the PR tool - just not the policymakers themselves.

afavour 2y ago

This is all just the dumbest knee jerk stuff. Politico didn’t make payroll a couple of days ago for some technical reason or another. But because the timing coincided with Musk and his minions invading USAID conspiracy theories immediately popped up: Politico is bankrolled by USAID! It’s a psyop! Of course the reality is incredibly boring. Politico sells PoliticoPro[1], “public affairs software”. The government (not USAID) was paying for that. Was it a good purchase? Are we getting value for money for it? No clue, but I’d bet the people that terminated the subscriptions don’t have a clue either. The hoarde demanded immediate action so action was taken. My bet is they’ll quietly resubscribe in a few months. [1] https://www.politicopro.com/ https://www.politicopro.com/

tamaharbor 2y ago

I think $8M is for a little more than “subscriptions”.

pentel-0_5 2y ago

Without seeing the value delivered for the service, it seems kind of pricey at first blush unless it was paying for multiple individual analysts for N accounts to give them credible, researched expertise as a service. Maybe they were paying for a zillion individual subscriptions? If so, perhaps a site license for $1-2 million would be more reasonable. Don't just throw things a way because the number is higher than X.

techapple 2y ago

Didn’t the CEO of the parent company of Politico recently call on all the executives to pray for president Trump? https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/politico-owner-pray-for-trump-mathias-dopfner-axel-springer-1234587243/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/politico...

croes 2y ago

Already debunked > USAID paid $44K to Politico, not over $8M as White House claimed. It was for subscriptions https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42977622 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42977622