Russia distributes propaganda. That much is already known by the majority of the public. Yet a recent DOJ indictment and press release reveals that Tenet Media, a Tennessee based media network headlined by 6 well-known conservative influencers, was secretly backed by Russian money made with the intent to promote views in accordance with Russian viewpoints.
For a brief overview of the company, Tenet Media was a company founded in January 2022 by the conservative couple Liam Donovan and Lauren Chen. From its founding, Tenet Media pumped out huge quantities of videos headlined by conservative influencers such as Tim Pool and Dave Rubin that focused heavily on divisive issues such as immigration, the election, and various conspiracy theories pushed by right-wing groups (you can find some of their videos here). At its peak, the channel had around 2 thousand videos and boasted upwards of 300,000 subscribers as well as a total of around 16.6 million views, although the median view count per video sits at around 1,000. Since the indictment, however, Youtube has terminated the group's Youtube channel as well as the channels of co-founder Lauren Chen, and most of the group's conservative headliners have tried to distance themselves from Tenet Media and their participation in it.
So what is the indictment really about? Well, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Tenet Media is one of several organizations backed by Russian perpetrators in an attempt to influence the 2024 Presidential Election, through spreading misinformation in an attempt to both convince individuals to feel more sympathetic towards Trump as well as widen existing divisions already present in US politics.
As NBC notes, Tenet Media is simply an example of Russia's decades-old strategy to spread propaganda through seemingly independent actors, in this case conservative headliners, in order to influence public or individual opinion. And this is clearly not the first time. Famously, the Russian Government was found to be interfering in the 2016 and 2020 US Presidential elections. Russia has also been documented spreading misinformation in Ukraine and Africa and more recently, Russia was found to be supporting pro-Palestinian influencers. Clearly, the Russian Government sees a very strong need to continue influencing global politics and as the The New Republic (a left leaning news source) points out, despite the continued deterioration of the Russian economy (see Russia is running out of Yuan :(), there is still a sizable budget devoted towards influencing the upcoming US election.
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| 3 of Tenet Media's 6 hosts. From left to right, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, and Tim Pool. Source: Tenet Media |
As we discussed in class and in the socratic seminars this past week, the media plays a huge role in shaping public agenda and public opinion -- the media is a major linkage institution that brings the public's problems and ideas to the policymakers and individuals in power in government. Thus, contaminating the media with ideas and ideals that are not actually held by the American public gives a false impression upon those in powers as to what the policy agenda (the most important issues that officials pay serious attention to) is and what their views should be, leading to skewed policies that don't actually benefit the people but rather the entities (in this case governments) that contaminated the media.
Thus, taken as a whole, this Russian propaganda campaign, although debatable in it's success (10 million dollars for mere thousands of views...?), represents and reminds us (the public) of the fact that elections are more than just national events, and that various competing governmental organizations are trying to influence the election -- whether that be this disinformation campaign, or perhaps Ukraine's invasion into Russia, showing the US and the Western hemisphere that the war is not, simply, another one of those markers in history where the little guy couldn't beat the big bad guy.
As the Atlantic sums it up:
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| I didn't mention this but the top influencer was paid $400k a month to make videos that racked up thousands of views, and when questions about financing and money came up, Russian sources simply made up a Belgian "free speech advocate" that had their name misspelled on multiple documents. Their resume is here. |
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Sources:
Tenet Media Youtube Statistics (Socialblade)
NBC, Forbes, WIRED, New Republic, New Republic - Tenet Company Fallout, The Atlantic, Washington Post, NY Times
Another cool article that I didn't use: WIRED - What was discussed in those Tenet Media Videos
2 comments:
I think that these influences have 100% changed or reaffirmed people’s trust either in the media or in their own beliefs. And I think that if it continues if it doesn’t get found out or shot down or US influencers continue to take these bribes then we will be influenced more by foreign politics than US. Because for as radical as some people are, the majority of Americans are highly indecisive and can never stay loyal to their beliefs when it comes to social media, a group of friends, and educating unbiasedly.
The real question that I draw from this is why is Russia so interested in influencing US politics?
Russia is obviously trying to influence US politics. They do it through Tenet Media and other online influencers because they believe Americans are more likely to trust other Americans.
Russia’s tactic seems to be confusing Americans into distrusting the media and the government in general. And this is not just a Tenet issue but happened for the same reason by the Russian company Doppelganger who is spreading false information about how the Russia-Ukraine war is going. According to a Pew Research study of Americans questioned on whether or not the US is giving too much or too little support to the Ukraine, Republicans, or leaning Republicans tended to believe that , which may be why Russia media is trying to endorse Trump through it’s foreign influence through companies like Tenet and Doppelganger. They paint Russians as people with “traditional values who stand up for ending the war in Ukraine and peaceful relations between the US and Russia and who are ready to get involved in the promotion of the project narratives.” They want to repaint the Russian image of the United States citizens and change the US’s plan for support for Ukraine so they can annex and take over them. The FBI already has a counterintelligence agency for combating foreign influences trying to prevent this kind of media from spreading but how well is it enforced? Is everything we think is US media, actually US media?
I think this whole incident is rather ironic of the conservative side as a whole, as they have spread conspiracy theories about the democratic party, and Kamala Harris, regarding Russian affairs. For example Donald Trump uses the nickname "Comrade Kamala" to describe his political opponent in speeches and on social media, which his followers mindlessly believe and spread sometimes in chants. The fact of the matter is however that there is no concrete evidence suggesting liberal involvement with Russia or communism and rather a heavy amount of involvement of the conservative side. This example of the conservative media taking bribes, Trumps awkward relationship with Putin and the fact that he practically praised the man, a point brought up by Harris in the 2024 presidential debate. Conservative media outlets, especially lesser known ones like Tenet media, tend to be a big outlet for conspiracy and misinformation, leading me to not be at all surprised that there is yet another case. The only different aspect of this piece is that they were actively being paid large sums of money to carry out the job, rather than spreading the propaganda/misinformation for the sake of political upheaval.
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