The Propaganda Payoff
"What was unveiled today exposed that our press has been paid for by the government off the backs of taxpayers to create propaganda that the powerful wanted to promote."
Washington is in panic, and the bureaucrats are quickly losing their minds. It’s not over tariffs or Gaza-lago. It isn't about the things that have happened at breakneck speed in the dismantling of that swampy town at the hands of President Trump in the last ten days. In fact, it doesn’t have much to do with the direct actions of the one the swamp creatures love to call “Orange Man Bad.”
No, this time it is about the billionaire on a budget warpath. As Elon Musk began to use his gang of WizKids to dissect and examine the budget of the United States, what they have uncovered may be the most shocking awfulness of my lifetime. In America, we are always told that what makes us different as a people is that we have a free press. This Constitutionally enshrined beacon of liberty is what keeps our government in check and our politicians honest. We are told that heroes like Woodward and Bernstein are the real champions of democracy and that the Old Gray Lady is the Newspaper of Record. We are told that these are the voices that keep us honest and free. The press tells us when things have come off the rails and when we should be suspicious of characters surrounding our government. The press is the diamond in our Republic’s ring.
Dutifully we have tuned into the Walter Cronkite’s and Rachel Maddow’s of media to find out what is really happening under the hood of our government. We parrot back the talking points that they give us so that we feel a little smarter at the work water cooler. We all do it. Frankly, we do it because it’s been ingrained in our belief system about what it means to be an American. We want to believe that our press is as American as apple pie and the Fourth of July. I remember as a kid learning about Pravda, the newspaper in the Soviet Union, and my English teacher proudly proclaiming that the noble pursuit of writing and journalism in America is what makes us a distinct culture and people - free of propaganda from the state and liberated to debate and decide about our civilization’s course, informed by our honest and unbiased press.
That illusion all came crashing down today as the data about the funding that was shut off at USAID came to light. What we found out through some keyboard warriors who are now couch surfing in the federal buildings, and some data wizards on X is that nearly everything in the press has been paid for off the backs of our people and taxpayers of the United States.
The details are shocking and feel unbelievable in a free society.
This week, the “journalists” at Politico discovered that their paychecks had not arrived. The leadership blamed a technical error, but a little digging shows a good causality between Mr. Musk shutting down payments at USAID and the payroll drying up. Politico has collected nearly 8.1 million dollars from USAID and other D.C. organizations. This money came through a series of grants and payoffs and a sneaky backdoor of premium subscriptions paid for by the government for their department’s employees, each for $34,000.
As the news trickled out, others started to dig into the data and found that these funding mechanisms have been used by The Associated Press, The New York Times, and the BBC, along with a multitude of other “media” companies. What was unveiled today exposed that our press has been paid for by the government off the backs of taxpayers to create propaganda that the powerful wanted to promote.
It wasn’t just limited to the mainstream news outlets either. Christianity Today, Media Matters, and everyone’s favorite Neocon, Bill Kristol were all on the take from the government. For many of us, the monolithic tone of American media has always felt suspicious. Tuning into any one of their outlets, one could hear the same use of words and attacks and assassinations of character. It didn’t matter what the channel was, the words were all the same. Right-wing media made fun of it for years. They would make montage clips of all the press using the word “gravitas” to describe George W. Bush’s Vice Presidential pick. Or “insurrection” to describe what happened on January 6th. It was easy to dismiss as a consolidated media who were lazy and unable to do anything creative in their reporting. Today’s news however reveals that it wasn’t just laziness - it was graft and directed funding to control the narrative about everything in politics and culture. We have been lied to as a people and the depth of that dishonesty seems to have no bottom.
“Their attacks on people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump were never about trying to get the “truth” out to the readers. It was about controlling disruptive forces that would destabilize their world and more importantly, their paychecks.”
In hindsight, it is easy to see it. How suddenly the conversation in media was all about transgenderism, or nazism, or Russia, Russia, Russia. If the media is paid for by the organization within the government that was designed to do all the dirty work for the CIA - is it any wonder that our press is the hollow version of what it is purported to be?
Their attacks on people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump were never about trying to get the “truth” out to the readers. It was about controlling disruptive forces that would destabilize their world and more importantly, their paychecks. They smeared countless people in order to make sure that change agents were made to look radical and irrational. There was no way to allow these kinds of disruptions within the system. Even if we gave the press the benefit of the doubt, that they thought they were doing the work most patriotic and beneficial to the United States, we would have to question their wholesale abandonment of journalistic principles. They attacked anyone who didn’t think that empire-building was the highest and best use of American taxpayer dollars and talent. Their cavalier, flippant-ness to the youth their propaganda left dead on the battlefields of far-flung deserts is criminal and the greatest tragedy of the 21st Century.
"It's beyond repair," Musk said, adding that President Trump agrees it should be shut down. Meanwhile, most USAID staffers were told not to report to the agency's headquarters in Washington on Monday and to work remotely — according to a copy of an email to personnel reviewed by Reuters. "Further guidance will be forthcoming," the note said.
No one was spared from their attacks in order to make sure their cushy lives were preserved. My heartfelt connection to all the disingenuousness about our media started in radical earnest during COVID. That drummed-up war machine against free thinking isolated my friends, family, and my children. It did immeasurable damage to friendships all across the world. It ruined small businesses and made America a place of snooping neighbors and totalitarian Karens’. It was all done in a coordinated effort bought and paid for by the American taxpayer. While the heartland suffered, the laptop class of Washington got wealthier and more elite as they stole the money from the people of the country.
I watched as a hero of mine, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was slandered and shoved out of mainline media in order to keep him from gaining any traction surrounding a different approach to the pandemic. When he ran for president the attacks were put in hyperdrive. RFK Jr. is the brightest and wisest person to run for president in my lifetime - and instead of the press highlighting his capacities, his long storied career, or his deep political capabilities, he was made to be a whale-chopping, dog-eating, brain-wormed monster. His associates like Jamel Holley and Angela Stanton King were guilty by association with Mr. Kennedy - everyone around him was made to look the fool for participating with him in his quest for the presidency and a different political conversation in America.
“The good news in all of it is that media which has been slowly changing all across America, will change exponentially faster.”
I have said often that you cannot hate the press enough. They take every opportunity to slander the good people of this nation. But after this week’s news that provided the receipts of their misconduct and gross abuse, we understand their nefarious deeds were done while we paid for them to kick us in the lower regions. For most, it will take a long time to understand the betrayal that this once-hallowed institution perpetrated on the American people. They ruined any trust that they might have had and the entire episode calls into question what kind of America we really live in. The evidence would point to a very different one than what most of us believe it is.
There’s a moment in the movie The Big Short where everything has already collapsed, but the institutions are all pretending nothing is wrong. The bond ratings remain triple-A, and the shorts continue to go up. Anyone in the know, however, understands the ride is nearly over, but the incentives to keep the illusion propped up are too great to admit the immanent failing. I’ve thought about this scene in regard to the press for years now. People aren’t watching or subscribing to these legacy brands, and regardless of the medium they choose to put it on, the viewership of CNN or NBC News is less than most influencers on YouTube; yet somehow, it all keeps rolling along. Today, the answer was provided. If a company doesn’t need to live in a real market-driven world, it can continue its illusion regardless of how bankrupt, both morally and financially, they are. If their company’s payroll is ACH’d into their bank account every week from the taxpayer, the “media” would have no connection or responsibility to the truth.
So the world of legacy media collapsed today, like a bad Monday at Lehman Brothers.
The good news in all of it is that media which has been slowly changing all across America, will change exponentially faster. One of my acquaintances that I came to admire during this political season was Jessica Reed Kraus. We have exchanged texts and Instagram messages off and on this past year. I find her writing tremendous and her connection with her audience a palpable force. When I think about Jessica and House In Habit, I see someone who has built an audience and media company by using her talents to give her readers interesting things to hear about and view in a timeframe that matches our moment. I have a great deal of hope that the new world of journalism that people like Jessica are creating will be more like the one that we were promised in our civics classes. Jessica did it all without extorting money from the taxpayer. What that means is that what she has accomplished is because the people she writes for are her very own audience and they value her writing and reporting. Because of that simple relationship and trust, her readers are willing to reward her with their hard-earned money. They see her work and the time she puts into everything from her Substack to her Instagram stories and understand that the new media is a conversation in real-time - and they get to have it with Jessica. They no longer have to have some gatekeeper tell them what the safest narrative is for the success of the World Health Organization or some NGO in Whocaresistan. That “curated" dumpster fire we have just watched implode will no longer carry any weight or hold any value in an honest civilization. People will not tolerate a phony, government-sponsored batch of pablum. They will dismiss the mainline voices in time and replace them with voices like Jessica’s, Matt Tiabbi’s, Glenn Greenwald’s, Walter Kirn’s, and many others whom they trust and feel included in the conversation with.
When the public realizes that these real journalists aren’t on the take from a government, their readership will grow and gain credibility. People will choose to support independent journalism because the writer on the other side of the keyboard isn’t responsible to anyone but their readers, and that feels incredibly American. Jessica has chosen to build something of value - a connection and camaraderie with her audience that shows the hard moments and the great ones. She does it with honesty and by wearing her biases on her sleeve. That doesn’t relegate her to being just a “mommy blogger” - that makes her the new kind of media. What the snakes and leeches in the legacy press did was take advantage of the good nature and core beliefs of Americans. They did it by stealing from underneath their noses at the direction and for the benefit of their masters in Washington. It’s an unforgivable sin.
Jessica and others are providing a redemptive path for disseminating information. I’ll take the new media and watch the old one collapse under its weight of awfulness.
To read and support Aaron’s work please subscribe to his newsletter HERE.
Up Ahead: Confirmation hearing recaps / BTS at RFK and Tulsi.
 | A guest post by
|
Thanks for sharing this one Jessica. It’s a wild thing to think about what’s happened. It’s going to be shattering a lot of longstanding beliefs-I’m glad it’s finally out in the open.
Well, that was a crazy thing to read. It makes me sick to my stomach to think how the USA hasn’t been nearly as free as it’s made out to be. I remember learning about Soviet propaganda and thinking, “man, I am lucky to be an American.” This was a great article, and a wake up call.