The struggle for truth – how IOL aims to capitalise on USAID funding cuts

The recent moves by the new Trump administration to cut huge parts of the federal government budget has meant the entire USAID project is at risk, with all programmes being paused. USAID is a global aid organisation that works on various programmes, and has a small portion of its budget allocated to supporting media. 

Of the total $50bn budget, only $280m was budgeted to fund journalism and the free flow of information. The majority of that to organisations in Ukraine and countries in dire situations. At less than 1% of budget, foreign aid support of journalism is tragically low, given its importance to society. However, disinformation peddlers, like Elon Musk, and others on a local level, have been quick to claim “mainstream media” have been the major benefactor of USAID funding. 

This is yet another targeted attack on journalism, and compromised newsrooms, like that of IOL, don’t miss a beat to use the opportunity to wrap their own agenda using the thin veil of journalistic legitimacy by sending questions that they will warp to push their master’s bidding. We know this to be true because we have evidence and facts. 

Read more about IOL’s falsehoods:

IOL publicly apologises to Daily Maverick for false reporting

Press Council expels Independent Media group for failing to obey rulings

Press Council expulsion is another blow to the credibility of Iqbal Survé’s Independent Media

Iqbal Survé’s media must apologise to Karyn Maughan and delete Nazi slur column, Press Council finds

Revealed: Independent Media’s internal report on Piet Rampedi’s decuplets story found it was a hoax and demanded an apology

Fact-checking the Independent group’s reporting on the PIC report

So we’re taking a different approach this time, to show you how their leading questions, based on propaganda peddlers, like Rob Hersov, who make baseless claims and unchecked comments leads to even greater pollution of the information space. 

These are the list of questions sent to us (and most likely News24 as they addressed us as Mr Basson rather than anyone in our team).



Our responses

1. While Daily Maverick hasn’t received any direct USAID funding, we lament the low levels of aid support for journalism around the world. As journalism suffers the impact of digital disruption, and some of our colleagues operate in war-torn countries or oppressive regimes, often foreign aid is the only option for sustainability. At 0.2% of all foreign aid, we believe this is a tragically low allocation and we can see the impact on not only our degraded information system but also democratic institutions.


2. Please see notices we published last year announcing cost-cutting and retrenchments.


3. Newsrooms around the world are under extreme financial pressure. Traditional business models are not working for enough publishers to serve national, regional and local audiences. The future looks bleak unless a policy intervention occurs that supports journalism, with incentives, rebates and other measures.


4. Strange and possibly leading question, news publishers have accepted advertising for centuries and support from readers through subscriptions, memberships and donations.


5. We’re seeing politically compromised (IOL) and economically compromised newsrooms being decimated, and the future looks bleak unless we see a policy intervention. The information system has little integrity left. It is very difficult to get those who push lies, and half-truths to be accountable for their actions and why legitimate newsrooms are being targeted.