New Owner of Politico Accepted Millions From the CIA to Print State Propaganda

The new owner of Politico, a mainstream media news outlet, has a lengthy track record of collusion with the Central Intelligence Agency to print stories considered favorable to the agency’s policy preferences.

Axel Springer SE is a German media conglomerate set to acquire Politico for a billion dollars by the end of October. The company, founded by and named after a German journalist who started his career writing for an antisemitic newspaper affiliated with the Nazi Party, accepted millions of dollars during the Cold War era to print editorial content at the behest of the CIA. Journalist Murray Waas has cited sources within the intelligence community who indicate Springer had accepted more than seven million dollars in the 1950’s to print CIA propaganda. Axel Springer’s relationship with the American CIA seems to have continued for several decades, with the corporation going so far as to train Afghan mujahideen armed and equipped by the CIA to film their encounters with Soviet forces.

An editor of Axel Springer’s flagship magazine Bild- fired this week for sexual misconduct with subordinate employees of the publication in the workplace- had accused journalist Glenn Greenwald and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden of enabling terrorism and cooperation with Al Qaeda.

Springer has already indicated it intends to mandate a series of liberal policy preferences among the writers who work at Politico, including support for the German-dominated European Union, support for Israel, and what they define as a free market economy. Other Axel Springer internal material expresses political affiliation with American libertarian principles, referring to political philosophy that the average American and the CIA would interpret quite differently.

The American corporate media is notorious for taking direction from the powerful and unelected intelligence community in its editorial content, with writers for Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post caught directly writing stories at the direction of CIA personnel.

In an age where social media monopolies increasingly act to censor and silence alternative media outlets willing to report on the Biden administration critically, a union between powerful and unaccountable entities of government and media outlets is even more dangerous than ever.

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