Politicos Defense News, Brought to You by Northrop Grumman
Does taking Northrop Grummans money make Politico less likely to call out
the Pentagons enormous and bloated military budget, war crimes committed
overseas, or the gross wastage of public funds?
by Alan Macleod
February 18th, 2021
Mint Press
By Alan Macleod
Since its inception 14 years ago, Politico has risen to become an internet
news giant. Now employing over 700 people and reaching 50 million people per
month, the website and newspaper has become one of the most trusted sources
of information on political issues in the United States. Key to this is its
range of influential newsletters, which reach millions every day.
And yet the organization has entered into a number of very troubling
partnerships that could potentially undermine the credibility and
independence of its reporting. Both its defense and space newsletters, which
keep readers informed and up to date on those topics, come sponsored by
giant military and aerospace contractor Northrop Grumman.
To its credit, Politico is upfront about their partnership, with those
sections bearing an advertisement label stating presented by Northrop
Grumman. The question is whether readers can truly trust the outlet to
accurately report and scrutinize those areas that are so critical to its
chief sponsor. Does taking Northrop Grummans money make Politico less
likely to call out the Pentagons enormous and bloated military budget, war
crimes committed overseas, or the gross wastage of public funds?
Certainly, Politico does not seem to have gone after Northrop Grumman. The
only articles tagging the defense giant in the past four years have been an
op-ed entitled America must return to the moon as soon as possible, which
paints the company as a vital part of that process, and a now-infamous story
with the headline How women took over the military-industrial complex.
That article presents Northrop Grummans hiring of its first female CEO as a
massive step forward for feminism, proving that the defense industry
represents a progressive, forward-thinking set of institutions.
Pairing up: policies and promoters
The partnership with Northrop Grumman is far from the only worrying
advertising deal Politico has signed, however. The outlets energy policy
newsletter comes courtesy of oil behemoth ExxonMobil. Its healthcare and
pharmaceutical newsletter is sponsored by private healthcare giant CVS
Health. And its tax and finance newsletter is presented by controversial tax
software company Intuit.
In most developed countries, the government has its own online system of tax
filing. However, Intuit has lobbied heavily against the IRS creating a free
app or software such as other nations have. As a result, millions of
Americans struggle to file taxes using Intuits costly and cumbersome
services. Intuit is legally required to allow military service members and
those earning less than $66,000 per year to use its software for free but an
investigation by ProPublica found that the company tricked large numbers of
people into unnecessarily paying for its product. Intuit is currently under
investigation by multiple state attorneys general as well as New Yorks
Department of Financial Services.
Meanwhile, Politicos Morning Tech news is sponsored by American Edge, an
organization that The Washington Post characterizes as a shady front group
for big tech giants, whose purpose is to combat any attempts by regulators
to rein in the worst excesses of the industry.
Getting their moneys worth
How can media be relied upon to report honestly on these industries or hold
them to account if that media is being directly funded by them? Should we
really expect journalists to be breaking stories about pharmaceutical price
gouging, the enormous power of Silicon Valley, or the devastation caused by
fossil-fuel company pollution if those companies are essentially paying
their wages?
Advertising works, not only on consumers, but on outlets as well. Celebrated
journalist Peter Oborne resigned in protest from the Daily Telegraph after
his reporting on banking giant HSBC was suppressed. The bank was one of the
newspapers largest advertisers. HSBC is the advertiser you literally
cannot afford to offend, one executive flatly told Oborne, in explanation
for why his exposé was squashed. With such leverage, large corporations
often see a benefit in advertising in media not only to increase sales, but
also as a way of ensuring positive coverage.
The weapons industry is a prime example of this. Raytheon sponsors Girl
Scout events and math contests for kids, as well as live events with Real
Clear Politics. Northrop Grumman itself spends millions of dollars on sports
events, sponsoring the Army-Navy Bowl game every year, and even Super Bowl
ads for its stealth bombers and jet fighters. These have nothing to do with
increasing sales. Rather, they are an attempt to improve their image with
the public to ensure the gravy train does not stop. Perhaps in sponsoring
journalistic content, these giants have found yet another way to smoothly
inject their corporate propaganda.
