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The Dispatch Ran One of the Dumbest 'Fact Checks' on Critics of Politico’s Gov't Funding
NewsBusters ^ | 2/10/2025 | Joseph Vazquez

Posted on 02/10/2025 8:02:34 AM PST by JV3MRC

"Fact checkers" at the anti-Trump website The Dispatch tried to scold critics enraged over the millions in taxpayer dollars wasted on "Politico Pro" subscriptions, and ended up looking completely ridiculous in the process.

Facebook originally hired The Dispatch as part of its old fact-checker squad, perhaps to lend an appearance of balance, as they have claimed. This wasn't balanced.

Following the uproar over the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other government agencies doling out $8.2 million on Politico’s wildly overpriced Pro subscriptions between 2024 and 2025 alone, The Dispatch fact-checker Alex Demas followed with a knee-jerk response on February 5: “Claims That Politico Received USAID Funds Are False.”

What?

Not only was this so-called “fact-check” headline ironically not true, given that USAID demonstrably spent at least $44,000 on subscriptions, Demas undercut his entire argument by conceding that the USAID funding for Politico did indeed exist.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: alexdemas; bias; jonahgoldberg; mediabias; politico; thedispatch; usaid

1 posted on 02/10/2025 8:02:34 AM PST by JV3MRC
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To: JV3MRC

8.2 million in contracts to poltical, for something that would of cost less then 500,000 if done with in house employees is a violation of Federal law on fraud

What USAID did is “breach of fiduciary duty”. No matter what spin the Alt Let tries to put on it, it was criminal fraud.


2 posted on 02/10/2025 8:08:56 AM PST by MNJohnnie (Don't blame me, my congressman is MTG!)
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To: MNJohnnie
8.2 million in contracts to poltical, for something that would of cost less then 500,000 if done with in house employees is a violation of Federal law on fraud. What USAID did is “breach of fiduciary duty”.

The $8.2M was the federal government as a whole, just for 2024. USAID had apparently just 1 subscription at $44K. How this data could possibly be worth 44K is a big question. I also wonder what portion of "Politico Pro" subscriptions are from the US Government, and if Politico Pro can survive without that money.

3 posted on 02/10/2025 11:11:22 AM PST by ETCM (“There is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil.” — Ronald Reagan)
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To: MNJohnnie

The government language is that expenses must be “reasonable and necessary”.

Obviously these subscriptions flunked that test!

They then fall into one of three categories in government bureaucracy speak:

—Waste
—Fraud
—Abuse

I would add a fourth category:

—Evil


4 posted on 02/10/2025 11:18:38 AM PST by cgbg (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.)
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To: JV3MRC

Can you imagine the reaction if Trump had ordered USAID to fund FR?


5 posted on 02/10/2025 11:27:32 AM PST by Socon-Econ (adi)
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To: JV3MRC

It’s Politico PRO. Don’t let them gaslight you!


6 posted on 02/10/2025 3:51:57 PM PST by griswold3 (Truth Beauty and Goodness)
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