Brussels is a cosy place. So cosy in fact that many, if not most, people here have convinced themselves (and one another) that it’s perfectly acceptable, normal even, for the EU to directly fund the media that cover them.
‘What’s the big deal?’ was the response in some quarters to Euractiv’s revelation this week that the institution is spending vastly more than previously acknowledged: € 35 million per year on average.
What’s so shocking about this to anyone not born and bred in the “Bubble” is the double standard. How is it that the Commission, which is so proud of its efforts to ‘level the playing field’ when it comes to competition in European industry, has no qualms about manipulating the marketplace of ideas by not just subsidising, but in some cases creating, pliant media staffed by journalistic neophytes?
In most European countries (with the glaring exception of France), using taxpayer money to bankroll the national press in perpetuity would be taboo – and for good reason.
Imagine for a moment if Berlin were to write a generous cheque every year to help Der Spiegel maintain its political coverage. It would lose all credibility. And no, such payments are not analogous to national public broadcasters, which rely on license fees earmarked solely for them.
In Brussels, generous subsidies for media have long been par for the course, as the shocking example of Euronews, which has received nearly €250 million over the past decade, makes all too clear.
That dependency has consequences, most disturbingly in that it has created a passive and obsequious press corps. Journalists in Brussels like to think of themselves as the ‘fourth estate’. In reality, they often function more like a fifth column that works hand in glove with the people they are supposed to cover in exchange for access.
If that sounds like an exaggeration, consider the following exchange that transpired in a WhatsApp group this week between reporters who covered the Polish presidency and Poland’s press team.
“Thank you Wojciech, Magdalena, Katarzyna, Magdalena, Inga and the others that worked to inform the press in such a helpful and detailed way, day after day for the last six months. You have set a precedent, an example to follow for the future of the EU presidencies,” gushed a correspondent for Italy’s Askanews.
“I agree – you guys rocked,” responded a writer for the EUObserver.
Not to be outdone, a Bloomberg editor wrote: “I’d like to propose a binding measure to keep the PL press team in the current form for at least a year or so, to continue keeping us informed 😉 Then a well-deserved promotion. You guys rocked.”
That triggered a virtual orgy of praise with dozens of ‘journalists’ – including reporters for Mlex, Politico and Reuters – piling in to pay fealty to the Polish flacks. | 
