The blackmail is though The addled, dementia patient in the White House is misinformed, as usual, Nieman Lab unpacked the “scandal.” Is your brain hurting, just from reading that? If Politico was, in fact, being bribed in exchange for slanted coverage, that would be noteworthy. It is, of course, not. Some of MAGA’s biggest brains seem to have noticed that several million federal dollars went to Politico and assumed that they came from a “Bribery—Media Fellow Travelers” line item in the budget. Instead, the money comes from federal offices buying subscriptions to Politico’s bureaucracy-focused Pro products. Government offices (and even Republican political campaigns!) have paid for news subscriptions for literal centuries. By the Trumpist line of logic, whenever a government department buys some desks or office chairs, it’s actually bribing Ikea to twist its Lagkapten and Grönfjäll into supporting DEI. That, for outlets like the AP, the size of the outlays were greatest under Trump’s own previous administration does not seem to have shocked anyone back to reality. The questions, they continue to swirl! November 18, 2024We’ve all gotten familiar with the absurdity of a lot of anti-media rhetoric the past decade or so. What’s different in this go-round is the speed with which nonsense spirals up from social media to policymakers to actual governmental action. Brendan Carr really does want to kill public broadcasting. Trump really is going to go after Politico’s revenues because he doesn’t like some of its stories. The lawsuits will keep coming, and they’ll keep getting settled by nervous corporate executives. Where it ends is entirely unclear. I think POlitico can take care of itself but the point of this…