{"id":2410370,"date":"2025-03-06T07:57:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T12:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/politico-stealth-edits-error-filled-hit-piece-on-gop-spending-bill\/"},"modified":"2025-03-06T07:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T12:59:09","slug":"politico-stealth-edits-error-filled-hit-piece-on-gop-spending-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/politico-stealth-edits-error-filled-hit-piece-on-gop-spending-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Politico Stealth Edits Error-Filled Hit Piece On GOP Spending Bill\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpolitico-stealth-edits-error-filled-hit-piece-on-gop-spending-bill%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2410370&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses \u200dthe controversy surrounding the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/leave-us-alone-massie-responds-to-bidens-plan-on-new-hot-water-heater-standards\/\" title=\"Massie tells Biden to back off on new hot water heater standards\">federal\u200d government&#8217;<\/a>s expenditure of $30 \u200bmillion\u200d on subscriptions to the news outlet \u2062Politico\u200d as 2015. It\u200c criticizes Politico&#8217;s journalistic \u2062standards, using \u2062a recent article \u200babout \u2063House Republicans&#8217; claims of potential $88 billion in Medicaid savings as \u2062a case study. The author points out that \u200dthe article omits crucial details from a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report \u200dindicating that $31 billion in improper Medicaid payments \u2064is \u200cmostly due to pandemic-era flexibilities,\u200b and \u2064warns that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/studies-medicaid-rolls-improper-payments-expand-hurting-state-budgets\/\" title=\"Studies: ... Rolls, ... Expand Hurting State Budgets\">improper payment rate<\/a> could \u2064rise \u200csignificantly as\u2064 these flexibilities\u200c expire. \u200d <\/p>\n<p>When questioned \u2063about these omissions, the reporter, Robert\u200b King, \u200bindicated that the\u200d article was updated, but the author \u200bargues \u2064that it was actually rewritten \u2062without clarification to the readers. This, \u200dthe author\u200b believes, compromises \u2064the integrity of journalism, suggesting that Politico should prioritize transparency and accuracy over defending its staff&#8217;s reputations. \u2062Ultimately, the author calls for federal agencies \u200band subscribers to question the value of their subscriptions to \u200dPolitico, given the perceived lack of accountability and journalistic integrity in this case. Chris Jacobs, the\u200b author, is\u2064 the founder and CEO of a research group \u200band advocates for improved \u200bstandards in journalism.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Last month&rsquo;s news that the federal government spent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politifact.com\/article\/2025\/feb\/07\/claims-about-politico-dei-musical-and-usaid-spendi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$30 million<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usaspending.gov\/search\/?hash=c0a4a55a8c3c3c898c6e9971700bd56f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">subscriptions<\/a> to Politico since 2015 drew outrage as a questionable use of taxpayer dollars. But numbers alone do not begin to describe the full extent of this waste of money &mdash; that requires examining the work itself. Politico&rsquo;s &ldquo;journalism&rdquo; leaves much to be desired.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Article&rsquo;s Erroneous Premise<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Last week, the outlet published an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/02\/25\/republican-medicaid-savings-plan-money-waste-00206071\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> regarding claims by House Republicans that lawmakers could find $88 billion in Medicaid savings over 10 years by eliminating waste and fraud. The title described the strategy as a &ldquo;rosy Medicaid savings plan,&rdquo; and said &ldquo;it&rsquo;s hard to see how the numbers add up.&rdquo; The basis of its logic came from last week&rsquo;s Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on high-risk programs that noted $31 billion in improper payments from Medicaid in fiscal year 2024, less than the $88 billion in annual savings the House budget resolution contemplates.<\/p>\n<p>But the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/gao-25-107743.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GAO report<\/a> also contained other facts that appeared nowhere in the article. First, it noted that the $31 billion in improper payments was due largely to pandemic-era flexibilities given to state Medicaid programs. Second, GAO specifically stated that &ldquo;the improper payment rate is likely to increase&rdquo; as those flexibilities ended. Third, GAO said the improper payment rate in fiscal year 2022 (15.6 percent) was nearly three times as high as that in fiscal year 2024 (5.09 percent). If the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">improper payment rate returned<\/a> to that level, then the amount of improper payments would likely exceed the $88 billion in Medicaid savings included in the House-passed budget, negating the article&rsquo;s main thesis.<\/p>\n<p>I emailed the reporter in question, Robert King, to ask him about these noteworthy omissions. King, who <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingbiznews.com\/media-news\/politico-hires-king-to-cover-medicare-and-medicaid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">heads up<\/a> Politico&rsquo;s coverage of Medicare and Medicaid, sent a terse reply shortly thereafter to say that &ldquo;we updated the story&rdquo; to reflect GAO&rsquo;s expectation that the improper payment rate would rise.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Protecting a Reporter&rsquo;s Ego Trumps Readers&rsquo; Right to Know<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Except Politico didn&rsquo;t update the story &mdash; it <em>rewrote<\/em> the story. It added language that &ldquo;even if [improper payments] tripled, Republicans would need to catch almost every dollar &hellip; to reach their savings target&rdquo; &mdash; moving the goalposts from the article&rsquo;s original premise. And it disclosed none of this to readers, failing to add a note that the story was updated, much less that its premise was changed.<\/p>\n<p>We all make mistakes, but King&rsquo;s was particularly egregious. The three data points he omitted from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/gao-25-107743.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GAO report<\/a> that argued against his premise came in the exact same paragraph as the $31 billion figure he based his article around. For this reason, I asked him a simple question: Had he actually read the GAO report before basing a story on it? He declined to answer. Likewise, a spokesman for Politico did not respond to multiple requests for comment, including a question about how such a thinly sourced article ever got approved for publication.<\/p>\n<p>Having made my own share of mistakes in my writing, I can sympathize with King&rsquo;s plight, but Politico cannot <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/02\/06\/politico-note-to-readers-00202917\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">credibly claim<\/a> to &ldquo;shin[e] a light on the work of &hellip; government&rdquo; without applying the same standards to itself. If a government agency rewrote or whitewashed a report to protect a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-top-aide-of-ny-gov-kathy-hochul-charged-with-being-a-chinese-government-agent\/\" title=\"Former Top Aide of NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Charged with Being a Chinese Government Agent\">government official&#038;rsquo<\/a>;s error, Politico would call that what it is: corruption. In this case, Politico committed the cardinal sin of journalism: prioritizing the egos of its staff over readers&rsquo; right to know all relevant material regarding a story, including, and especially, any omissions or errors.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the federal government, to say nothing of Politico&rsquo;s private sector subscribers to its Pro service, should demand refunds of its pricey subscriptions because a publication that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/02\/06\/politico-note-to-readers-00202917\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discusses<\/a> &ldquo;our commitment to transparency [and] accountability&rdquo; showed neither in this instance. And an outlet that claims it can sell subscriptions because &ldquo;it makes [clients] better at their jobs&rdquo; may want to spend more time ensuring its staff get better at theirs &mdash; starting with a 101 on journalistic integrity.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal spending $30 million on Politico since 2015 raises concerns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2410371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Person-Holding-Money-and-Pill-Bottle.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6203,4188,5894],"class_list":["post-2410370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gop","tag-media","tag-politics"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Person-Holding-Money-and-Pill-Bottle.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2410370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2410374,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410370\/revisions\/2410374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2410371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2410370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2410370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2410370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}