‘Presented by Lockheed Martin’ Removed from Politico’s Biden Story

A Politico newsletter article about President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan originally was labeled as “Presented by Lockheed Martin,” but the label was later removed, according to Internet Archive pages. The change has been the subject of many social media posts. Heavy has reached out to Politico about the change.

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Internet Archive’s Page Shows the Story Originally Was Labeled as ‘Presented by Lockheed Martin’

A number of recent social media posts have been discussing how an August 13 article by Politico was originally labeled as “Presented by Lockheed Martin,” but the label was later removed. Heavy checked Internet Archive and confirmed that the story about Biden and Afghanistan did originally have a label that it was “Presented by Lockheed Martin,” while the current version as of the time of publication does not. A screenshot is above and the archive link showing the “Lockheed Martin” label is here.

The headline for the article reads: “‘This got bungled’: Biden’s two tragic Afghanistan missteps.”

A number of other Politico articles recently lost their “Presented by Lockheed Martin” label, so Heavy has reached out to Politico to determine why or if this was caused by a technical error.

The current version of the Biden story from August 16, as of the time of this article’s publication, no longer has the Lockheed Martin label. (An archive of the article without the label is here.) However, a version archived from earlier on August 16, taken around 1 a.m., did have the label. The new version also does not have a correction explaining why the label was removed.

The article is part of Politico’s National Security Daily newsletter. The article was written by Alexander Ward and Quint Forgey. Heavy has reached out to the reporters to confirm why the label was removed or if it was in error.

The article noted that withdrawing from Afghanistan was a “completely defensible” choice, but the administration “mishandled the pullout” in a way that “has been nothing short of disastrous.”

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Other ‘National Security Daily’ Newsletter Pieces Also Recently Lost a ‘Presented by Lockheed Martin’ Label

In researching Internet Archives, Heavy discovered that this isn’t the first article from National Security Daily to originally have the “Presented by Lockheed Martin” label. Two other stories had the labels, which were only recently lost.

An August 10, 2021, article titled “Inside Ted Cruz’s battle with Biden’s State Department” originally read “Presented by Lockheed Martin,” according to Internet Archives.

However, the current version as of the time of publication does not have that label. A version from August 13 still had the label, but a version from August 16 does not. (The archive is here.)

The same can also be seen on August 11 article from the same newsletter, for a story titled: “U.S. weighing possible evacuation of Kabul embassy, sources say.” The original version did have a “Presented by Lockheed Martin” label.

As of the time of publication, the current version does not. (You can see an archive of the current version here.)

Internet Archive shows this to be a recent change. The August 14 archive capture still had the “Lockheed Martin” label.

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People Have Been Discussing the Change Online

Heavy first learned of the change because of an active Reddit discussion about the “Lockheed Martin” label and how it went missing.

In addition, people have been talking about the change on Twitter.

Back on May 24, reporter Alex Kotch tweeted about a different newsletter from Politico being presented by ExxonMobil.

Someone else joked that a newsletter might one day be presented by Lockheed Martin and be advocating military intervention.

Heavy has reached out to Politico for comment.

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