How the DC media machine actually works
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This is because news outlets are becoming increasingly brazen about corporate partnerships. It was somewhat amusing to see DataRepublican recently pick up on a report my colleagues at “Breaking Points” produced last year about Punchbowl News.
DataRepublican, a relentless investigator of political money trails, noticed the outlet had been flamboyantly defensive of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). Many of Thune’s donors also happen to sponsor Punchbowl.
Last year, a source leaked one of Punchbowl’s latest pitch decks for corporate advertisers to “Breaking Points.” The document offered editorial influence for cash. Granted, Punchbowl dressed the offer up in corporate language, but its invitation was unmistakable. Corporations can pay them to cover a “mutually agreed upon topic” in podcast series, “editorial deep dives,” and events.
The pitch deck even included a sample of Punchbowl’s work with Google on “custom content.”
This is undeniably a breach of basic journalistic ethics. But nobody in D.C. bats an eye. Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer, the founders of Punchbowl, are beloved in Washington. They are called upon for sober analysis, win awards, and lecture others on journalism.
What’s funny is that D.C. reporters honestly do not believe these dishonorable financial relationships influence their coverage. This is a common — and entirely reasonable — misconception about how Washington works.
The wall between Washington and the world grows taller. An insular city becomes more insular, and the citizens it serves become more distant.
Corporations and their lobbyists do not approach journalists and say, “Here’s $20,000, write something nice about the F-35 Lightning.”
A famous 1996 BBC interview sheds light on what’s really going on. Journalist Andrew Marr asked Noam Chomsky, “How can you know that I’m self-censoring?” “I don’t say you’re self-censoring,” Chomsky replied. “I’m sure you believe everything you’re saying. But what I’m saying is that if you believed something different, you wouldn’t be sitting where you’re sitting.”
This is the way the system actually functions. Sherman, Palmer, and their peers in the business see themselves as genuine shoe-leather reporters, covering politics without fear or favor.
The perception of the “facts” and of right and wrong just happens to fall within the same range of beliefs shared by their subjects and sponsors.
Why might John Thune, the leader of the Senate GOP, share donors with a center-left Beltway rag? Thune and Punchbowl are cogs in the same machine, and the corporate cash is the grease on its wheels. Some of those wheels get a bit squeaky at times, but the machine never stops.
Meta can pay a newsletter to host a breakfast on internet safety where journalists will exchange cards and conversation with executives and lobbyists. They won’t meet the parents who say Meta failed to protect their child from sex predators. Those stakeholders are typically not organized or wealthy enough to pay for face time with executives.
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As a consequence, the wall between Washington and the world grows taller. An insular city becomes more insular, and the citizens it serves become more distant.
One reporter who spent years working at one of the Beltway rags put it this way:
It’s important to understand that corporate sponsorships are central to the business model. Honestly, the newsroom at Politico is only about half of the actual company. They have an entire floor in their Rosslyn office for business operations. When you have that level of financial interdependence, it inevitably spills into the newsroom. Even if there’s not an explicit bias in reporter stories or Playbook it still creates an institutional alignment with corporate interests and priorities that runs afoul of what we expect from a truly adversarial or accountability-driven press.
This story isn’t as sexy as cash being exchanged for coverage in some back-alley deal. The problem is much worse than that. It’s the final form of the American media’s shared worldview with its powerful subjects. They’re in control, and the rabble must be tempered.
The interests of politicians and journalists used to look like a Venn diagram: divergent with small overlap. Now that picture is just a circle.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the American Mind.
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