The avalanche of wasteful spending uncovered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a mere hint of deeper secrets lurking within funky federal funding. Even a cub reporter knows the juiciest news is uncovered when you follow the money, but that is not where the legacy media are looking.

DOGE is highlighting spending information that is ripe for investigative reporting. A lot of this information has been readily available on the government spending website USAspending.gov, which was spurred to life in 2006 in part through the efforts of Federalist CEO and Co-Founder Sean Davis.

As the staffer who conceived of and wrote that law for Sen. Tom Coburn, the lead sponsor of the bill, I am not at all surprised to see what’s happening with USASpending. What’s happening right now is exactly what was intended from the very beginning. https://t.co/sbN6s44vEc

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 7, 2025

The corporate media have had years to tell the public the extent of government glut, but why would they when they were on the take themselves, enjoying fat government handouts? As Federalist writer Logan Washburn recently reported, the federal government has paid Politico $34.3 million since 2015; Reuters, $10.6 million since 2020; The New York Times, $2.7 million since 2008; and $1.7 million to The Washington Post since 2014.

It is a conflict of interest for the media to receive money from the same government it is ostensibly covering. It’s hard to imagine a heavy-hitting investigation challenging spending such as “$8 million to teach Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid ‘binary gendered language,’” as Federalist writer Tristan Justice recently reported. (Read more from “Media Should Investigate Federal Waste Instead Of The People Uncovering It” HERE)