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Tag: Axel Springer SE
May 15, 2025
Corruption
Media

White House Fumes Over Don Jr’s Media Treatment.

PULSE POINTS:

❓What Happened: The Trump administration is reportedly considering a federal investigation into Axel Springer, the German parent company of POLITICO and Business Insider. The possible probe follows a thinly sourced story published by Business Insider suggesting that Donald Trump Jr.’s business interests could be akin to Hunter Biden’s corrupt political activities.

👥 Who’s Involved: The Trump White House, Donald Trump Jr., Business Insider journalist Bethany McLean, and Axel Springer.

📍 Where & When: The issue arose following a May 6 report by Business Insider, with rumors of a possible federal probe emerging between May 13 and 15.

💬 Key Quote: An unnamed White House adviser reportedly referred to Axel Springer as a “German influence operation” and suggested its reporting could be “illegal foreign political meddling.”

⚠️ Impact: The potential probe could place Axel Springer under federal scrutiny for its media activities in the U.S.

IN FULL:

The Trump White House is reportedly weighing a federal investigation into Axel Springer, the German media conglomerate that owns POLITICO and Business Insider. The move follows a recent report by Business Insider comparing Donald Trump Jr.’s business activities to Hunter Biden‘s alleged selling of White House access, involving his father, former President Joe Biden.

On May 6, journalist Bethany McLean published a piece in Business Insider titled “Don Jr. Is the New Hunter Biden.” The report highlighted Trump Jr.’s involvement with the venture capital firm 1789 Capital and quoted an anonymous source allegedly close to the Trump family claiming, “What they’re doing is selling access to the president via the back door.”

The comparison parallels Hunter Biden, who has faced scrutiny for years over his foreign business dealings and accusations of leveraging White House access during his father’s political career. Notably, other Biden family members, including Joe Biden’s brother, Jim Biden, faced similar allegations of political corruption.

Following the Business Insider story, reports emerged that the Trump White House is considering a federal probe of the media outlet’s foreign owner, Axel Springer. Speculation regarding the investigation has been further fueled by a story from Matthew Boyle of Breitbart News, which cites an unnamed White House adviser who described Axel Springer as a “German influence operation.” The adviser also suggested that the company’s activities might amount to “illegal foreign political meddling.”

Axel Springer’s media outlets, including POLITICO and Business Insider, are believed to have attracted the attention of senior administration officials. Notably, the German-based media conglomerate and its U.S.-based media properties could face scrutiny for potentially violating federal ethics norms.

Image by Gage Skidmore.

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March 18, 2025
William Upton
Media

Board Member of POLITICO’s Foreign Parent Company Says He’ll Interfere in News Coverage.

A technology mogul based in Spain, who sits on the board of the German company that owns the American media outlet POLITICO, publicly admits that he is using his position to influence the corporate news outlet’s reporting to align with his personal political views.

Martín Varsavsky, an entrepreneur and philanthropist born in Argentina, wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that POLITICO‘s recent coverage of Israeli airstrikes is not pro-Israel enough and that he will use his influence on the board of the American outlet’s German parent company Axel Springer to rectify the coverage.

“I am on the board of Axel Springer that owns Político. I consider this article one sided Hamas support,” Varsavsky said of one report, adding: “It fails to mention that the airstrikes were aimed at eliminating top Hamas military and thar [sic] Israel was successful at doing so. It also quotes casualty figures given by Hamas that are not believed to be accurate.”

When asked by an X user what he would do about POLITICO‘s story and coverage, Varsavsky replied: “working on it.”

FOREIGN INFLUENCE?

While political bias continues to be a concerning problem in American media, Varsavsky’s post also raises questions regarding independence from foreign influence. Axel Springer SE is a German technology and media company headquartered in Berlin that owns POLITICO and Business Insider, both U.S.-based media outlets. The National Pulse has previously reported on the problem of POLITICO‘s coverage being influenced by corporate advertisers, including Big Pharma.

Under prior U.S. presidential administrations, POLITICO received millions of dollars from the U.S. federal government, including for news subscriptions and secondary services such as databases, newswire services, marketing tools, and media monitoring. This raises concerns regarding the outlet as a potential vector of undue foreign influence.

Further complicating matters, Varsavsky is scrutinizing coverage that is not original POLITICO reporting but a wire story published by the Associated Press.

Image by Marco Verch.

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A technology mogul based in Spain, who sits on the board of the German company that owns the American media outlet POLITICO, publicly admits that he is using his position to influence the corporate news outlet's reporting to align with his personal political views. show more
ai
June 23, 2023
Jack Montgomery
News

POLITICO’s Foreign Owner Is Slashing Staff, Replacing With AI.

Around a fifth of the staff at Europe’s highest-circulation newspaper, Bild, are being fired by owners Axel Springer SE, which also owns influential U.S. publications such as POLITICO and Business Insider. The move is part of a drive to replace human workers with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

“[U]nfortunately [we will] be parting ways with colleagues who have tasks that in the digital world are performed by AI and/or automated processes,” Axel Springer told Bild staff in an email leaked to a rival German publication.

The firings are expected to slash around 200 jobs from the tabloid’s formerly 1,000-strong workforce, and follows Axel Springer boss Mathias Döpfner declaring that AI “has the potential to make independent journalism better than it ever was – or simply replace it” earlier this year.

Döpfner is a friend of Twitter owner Elon Musk, urging him to buy the social media platform and offering to run it for him before he took it over.

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Around a fifth of the staff at Europe's highest-circulation newspaper, Bild, are being fired by owners Axel Springer SE, which also owns influential U.S. publications such as POLITICO and Business Insider. The move is part of a drive to replace human workers with Artificial Intelligence (AI). show more