It’s petty cash compared with what media influencers like Murdoch’s News Corp and Sky News can achieve. “News” is an illusion that runs second to their primary product of the business of influence and persuasion and worse confusion. The magic it always continues despite regular failures as recently seen in Australia, US and the UK. Money flows from the top down from the capital accumulation of the ever-expanding wealthiest interests and from not the bottom up. Money from the bottom up tends to be a competition among grifters like Trump, QAnon, Alex Jones et al the bottom feeders trying to impress individuals and ambitious smaller fry extreme associations. The camp followers of Capitalism.

It is not as though MEPs are poorly remunerated to begin with, each of them earning about €9,400 a month as well as €4,800 general expenses for which they need not produce receipts. In addition, they are allowed to hold as many other jobs as they want with the nature of their activities often declared in the most general and untransparent way.

Source: Turning Influence Into Money in the EU Parliament – CounterPunch.org