Mediagate: USAID subsidized at least 6,000 'journalists' worldwide

Trump and Musk's DOGE shut USAID, revealing millions in media funding. Global journalism in chaos as USAID's support for 6,200+ journalists ends.

FPI / February 9, 2025

Before its signage was removed on Feb. 7 and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was shuttered by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), it was revealed that major media outlets including Politico, The New York Times, and the BBC received millions in U.S. taxpayer funds during the Biden-Harris years.

Feb. 6 reports revealed what would be the "tip of the iceberg."

Mike Benz discusses the issue on Newsmax

Here's what has happened since:

WikiLeaks, citing a RSF (Reporters Without Borders) report, noted in a post to X that USAID had been funding over 6,200 "journalists" worldwide across 707 media outlets and 279 "media" NGOs.

The Trump administration's freeze on foreign aid included the roughly $268 million earmarked to fund what the RSF report dubbed "independent media," and has "thrown journalism around the world into chaos."

"Almost immediately after the freeze went into effect, journalistic organizations around the world that receive American aid funding started reaching out to RSF expressing confusion, chaos, and uncertainty. The affected organizations include large international NGOs that support independent media like the International Fund for Public Interest Media and smaller, individual media outlets serving audiences living under repressive conditions in countries like Iran and Russia," the RSF report said.

The report went on to said that USAID programs "support independent media in more than 30 countries, but it is difficult to assess the full extent of the harm done to the global media. Many organizations are hesitant to draw attention for fear of risking long-term funding or coming under political attacks."

According to the report, 90% of the reporting out of Ukraine relied on USAID funding.

Zero Hedge noted: "Of course, the RSF report, and another from the Columbia Journalism Review are sounding the alarm over the 'silencing of independent media' around the world. The critical context they omit, however, is that USAID - despite the best of intentions when it was formed, has been corrupted into a deep-state slush-fund. And so, no matter how 'independent' these USAID-funded media outlets are around the world, they're all eating fruit from the same poisonous tree."

Musk and his DOGE team revealed this week that the premium version of Politico, which tracks granular policy in Congress and other areas, had received over $8 million from the Biden-Harris administration. Subscriptions had been purchased by many multiple agencies with the even the Department of Agriculture spending some half a million dollars on these subscriptions.

Politico defended itself by saying its product was worth the cost.

Along with the subscriptions to Politico Pro, DOGE announced that a contract with The New York Times at the Treasury Department was canceled.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the termination of all media contracts within the General Services Administration (GSA).

According to Axios, Trump told the GSA to terminate "every single media contract." In an email, the White House wrote: "Pull all contracts for Politico, BBC, E&E (Politico sub) and Bloomberg," and, "Pull all media contracts for just GSA - cancel every single media contract today for GSA only."

The director of USAID security, John Voorhees, and his deputy Brian McGill, were removed from their positions and put on leave after denying DOGE access to classified material. The pair believed themselves legally obligated to deny access.

PBS reported that DOGE staff attempted to gain access to "secure spaces."

Katie Miller, a DOGE spokesperson, said on social media platform X that no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.

Steven Cheung, a senior aide to Trump, posted on X that the PBS report was "legitimately FAKE NEWS. Not even remotely true at all. This is how unserious and untrustworthy the media is."

Matt Hopson, who had just been appointed as USAID chief of staff by the Trump administration, resigned, reports said. A congressional source said his resignation followed the incident with DOGE officials.

USAID's account on X has been disabled and the USAID website has been down since Saturday afternoon.

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