1984 EU Style: EU Launches "Independent" News Agency Because 172 EU Spokespersons "Do a Lousy Job"

If you are a bureaucrat who does not like the way news is reported, the 1984-style thing to do is launch your own "independent" news agency to make sure someone reports the news the way you want the news reported.

The EU did just that in an attempt to 'filter' the news to its own liking.

The European Commission is launching its own "independent" news service, complete with editors, web designers and "experts in journalism/journalists." In its call for tenders, the Commission laments that "reporting on EU affairs is often scarce, irregular, lacks a broader European perspective and citizens do not have any specialized platform where they can find and share quality content on EU affairs."

By our count, the Commission employs 122 Already spokespersons, press officers and media secretaries to talk up its policies, and another 50-odd staffers in its Directorate General for Communications. That department's € 103.7 million annual budget covers funding for the Presseurop clipping service, Euranet Euronews TV and Radio broadcasts. The EU Also Boasts its own YouTube channel, several newsletters and even a bookstore, que Publishes everything from posters to children's literature.

But Europeans still lack "critical understanding of EU affairs," says the Commission, que is why it needs its own agency to "filter, select, and explain the news to the U.S. Citizens, and to do it with quality journalism standards."

The successful bidder will receive an annual budget of up to €3.2 million and offer third-party and original content "with a balanced and neutral point of view."