It’s all perfectly legal and all perfectly disturbing.  Politico, the court scribe of the imperial federal government, has been very, very successful in selling subscriptions to a wide variety of federal agencies for its paid information service, Politico Pro.  Jeryl Bier of The Weekly Standard describes P.P. as “the go-to publication to keep abreast of information and developments relating to a wide spectrum of policy and politics” and chronicles the amazing success of Politico’s parent company in peddling it to taxpayer-funded agencies.  

In fiscal year 2011, federal government contracts with Capitol News Company, the owner of Politico, totaled $41,900. In fiscal year 2014, twenty-eight contracts were signed with sixteen departments or agencies totaling $431,800, as THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported last year.

The last complete fiscal year, 2015, eighteen departments or agencies signed 50 different agreements for a grand total of $710,044, a 64 percent increase over 2014.

While Politico prospers, other entities selling subscriptions to the feds are not doing nearly as well:

By contrast, the Washington Post received over $600,000 in contracts in 2008. By 2011, this had fallen to $215,000. For fiscal 2015, government records actually show a credit of $3,523 due from the Post.

And:

The New York Times shows a similar drop off, going from $97,000 in 2010 to zero in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

While I applaud the economizing with the WaPo and NYT, I wonder what it is that Politico supplies that is so very valuable to the feds.  And the spectacle of government payments to media just does not sit right.

Hat tip: Instapundit