PROTECTION RACKET MEDIA UPDATE: USAID Funded NY Times, BBC Too.

Well, well, well. So much for the value of an “independent press.” It turns out that even the most vaunted organizations within that industry covertly sucked at the taxpayer teat while supposedly reporting without fear or favor on the bureaucratic state that supports them. And they did that while the bureaucratic state targeted debate and dissent everywhere else.

Now that the US DOGE Service (USDS) — its actual name, which will become important later — has begun number-crunching federal outlays, this corrupt arrangement has become much clearer. Beege wrote about Politico’s income from its absurdly priced Politico PRO subscriptions, but a new pass through the data shows that both the New York Times and even the BBC had seven-figure income streams from USAID, too:

The BBC? Why is a state-owned media outlet in the UK receiving American government funding at all? The UK forces British subjects to underwrite the BBC through license fees, which calls the BBC’s credibility into question as a watchdog already. American taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to participate in that activity, too.

Hey, if I’m funding the BBC, I’m demanding that they reboot Top Gear with Clarkson, Hammond and May!

More locally, and more seriously: Too Funny to Check: USAID Checkbook Snaps Shut, Politico Paychecks Shut Down? “The fact that they — Politico — were being paid by the Biden administration certainly puts a different spin on why they muzzled [Marc Caputo] and fellow reporter Tara Palmeri, doesn’t it?”

Finally, the Martha Raddatz Award goes to Brian Stelter today:

Gee Brian, $8 million here and $8 million there, and sooner or later, you’re talking about real money.

To be fair, the above tweet isn’t Stelter’s worst take about cutting off the funding of the DNC-MSM: