In line with a report obtained by The New York Submit, the federal authorities spent $8.5 million in taxpayer cash to create podcasts selling left-wing causes.
The spending, first found by taxpayer watchdog OpenTheBooks.com, revealed $8,535,556 was given to the creation of 58 podcasts from February 2020 to September 2023.
Throughout the identical interval, the federal government spent $323.7 million on various different initiatives, together with podcasts.
In line with the report, the podcasts had been largely funded by the Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which operated with a mixed price range of $207 million. Among the matters lined within the podcasts included historical past, artwork, literature, science, languages, and faith.
One entity-funded podcast focuses on Southern historical past and contains an episode titled “Bedfellows Without end: How Nineteenth-Century Male Romantic Friendships Problem Our Understanding of Historic Masculinity.” The episode's host is described as “struggling to outline his personal relationship along with his finest good friend”.
Greater than $200,000 was given for a podcast episode discussing a “comparatively new, gender-neutral pronoun that challenges Swedish grammar norms”.
“Using hen turned a part of the dialog the nation was already having about gender and equality,” the episode description continues. “Can the introduction of 1 phrase change societal views?”
One other podcast targeted on kids with COVID-19 content material.
One podcast, funded by the Division of International Affairs, seeks to deal with “points and tales affecting trans and intersex lives in Zimbabwe.”
OpenTheBooks founder Adam Andrzejewski instructed The Submit, “We pay plenty of taxes — from revenue to inheritance to capital beneficial properties. However who knew we pay tax on podcasts?
He added that “Individuals are used to getting numerous hours of free content material by podcast platforms, and the federal authorities ought to keep out of the enterprise of podcast content material. It’s a thinly veiled propaganda marketing campaign used to unfold silly opinions or radical ideologies paid for by the American folks.”
