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2024 Tenet Media investigation

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2024 Tenet Media investigation
IndustryMedia
FoundedJanuary 2022
FoundersLauren Chen
Liam Donovan
DefunctSeptember 5, 2024 (2024-09-05)[1]
Headquarters
Nashville, Tennessee[2]
,
U.S.
Key people
Liam Donovan (president)

Tenet Media was an American right-wing media company founded by conservatives[3][4] Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan (her husband) in 2022. Describing itself as a "network of heterodox commentators that focus on western political and cultural issues",[5][6] Tenet Media featured six right-wing influencers: Matt Christiansen, Tayler Hansen, Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern.[7][8][9]

In 2024 the U.S. charged two Russian media executives in a $10 million scheme to illegally fund Tenet Media and influence it to promote Russian propaganda.[10] The company shut down shortly afterward.

Topics

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According to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), many of Tenet's videos "contain commentary on events and issues in the U.S., such as immigration, inflation, and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy. While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, most are directed to the publicly stated goals of the Government of Russia and RT — to amplify domestic divisions in the United States."[11]

Tenet's podcasts featured prominent Republican figures, including Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, Project 2025 director Paul Dans, Vivek Ramaswamy, Kash Patel and Kari Lake.[12] Tenet's content included coverage of illegal immigration, diversity in video games, supposed racism against white people, free speech and Elon Musk,[13] as well as climate change denial content.[14]

Around February 2023, Tenet sought to hire two right-wing commentators with 2.4 million YouTube subscribers and 1.3 million YouTube subscribers to produce videos. The two eventually signed on, and "Commentator-1" and "Commentator-2" each received over $400,000 per month for producing political videos for Tenet.[7] According to the DOJ indictment, the two defendants requested that Tenet influencers produce content blaming the Crocus City Hall attack on Ukraine and the U.S.[15][16]

Indictment of Russian nationals

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See also: Russian interference in the 2024 United States elections

Two Russian nationals were federally indicted by the DOJ on September 4, 2024, for their alleged activities relating to Tenet. The company was identified only as "Company-1" in the indictment but descriptive information allowed several media sources to identify it as Tenet. According to an unsealed indictment,[17] the two indicted Russians were employees of the Russian state-controlled media company RT who were charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, and allegedly funneling around $10 million into Tenet in order to "distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging".[6][18]

The indictment of the two Russians was revealing: "The unsealed indictment said the founders of the unidentified company — widely reported to be Tenet Media — knew their funding came from 'the Russians.'"[4] It alleges the Tenet founders masked their Russian funding by creating a fictitious persona of a wealthy European sponsor, "Eduard Grigoriann."[19] The charged Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, were involved in day-to-day operations of Tenet by fall 2023, using false names to conceal they were Russian RT employees. The indictment alleges the founders acknowledged in private communications that their "investors" were actually the "Russians."[7][10]

Attorney general Merrick Garland said Tenet "never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government."[20] Prosecutors also allege the $10 million was a Russian money laundering operation.[10]

"Far-right influencers hired by the company, including Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and Dave Rubin, have said they were unwitting 'victims' of the alleged scheme."[4][21]

Following the indictment, YouTube terminated Tenet Media and other channels run by Chen. Prior to its removal, Tenet had around 316,000 subscribers.[22] Tenet influencer Tayler Hansen announced on September 5 that the company had shut down.[23]

The Biden administration said the indictment was part of a wider effort to counter a major Russian government effort to influence the 2024 US presidential election that included sanctions on ten individuals and entities, and the seizure of 32 internet domains.[6] Unlike in 2016 and 2020, when Russia employed armies of trolls and bots to reach Americans, with dubious results, in 2024 Russia had pivoted to exploit established conservative social media influencers to reach Americans with pro-Russia messaging.[24] Russian official Leonid Slutsky responded by characterizing the sanctions as "a clear example of a 'witch hunt,' pressure on freedom of speech and vulgar censorship."[25]

References

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  1. ^ Merlan, Anna. "Tenet Media shutters after being accused of taking $10 million in covert Kremlin funding". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on September 7, 2024. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  2. ^ Mealins, Evan (September 5, 2024). "What to know about Tenet Media, Tennessee company linked to Russian propagandists". Nashville Tennessean. Yahoo. Retrieved September 9, 2024.
  3. ^ Gotfredsen, Sarah Grevy. "The Tenet Media Incident". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on September 15, 2024. Retrieved September 15, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Dyer, Evan (September 11, 2024). "Analysis: Washington's indictment shines a bright light on the dark corners of Russian disinformation operations". CBC.ca. Archived from the original on September 11, 2024. Retrieved September 12, 2024.
  5. ^ "Tenet Media: Fearless Voices Live Here". Tenet media. Archived from the original on September 5, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
  6. ^ a b c Cohen, Zachary; O'Sullivan, Donie; Perez, Evan; Lyngaas, Sean (September 4, 2024). "DOJ alleges Russia funded US media company linked to right-wing social media stars". CNN. Archived from the original on September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c Becket, Stefan; Quinn, Melissa (September 5, 2024). "U.S. says Russia funded media company that paid right-wing influencers millions for videos". CBS News. Archived from the original on September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
  8. ^ Couts, Andrew; Marchman, Tim (September 4, 2024). "Right-Wing Influencer Network Tenet Media Allegedly Spread Russian Disinformation". Wired. Archived from the original on September 5, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
  9. ^ Mealins, Evan (September 5, 2024). "What to know about Tenet Media, Tennessee company linked to Russian propagandists". The Tennessean. Archived from the original on September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
  10. ^ a b c Nakamura, David; Belton, Catherine; Sommer, Will (September 4, 2024). "Justice Dept. charges two Russian media operatives in alleged scheme". The Washington Post.
  11. ^ Spangler, Todd (September 5, 2024). "U.S. Officials Allege Russian Operatives Illegally Provided $10 Million to Fund Videos by American Right-Wing Social Media Stars". Variety. Archived from the original on September 5, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  12. ^ Mansfield, Erin (September 6, 2024). "Lara Trump, Kari Lake, other notable Republicans appeared on podcasts accused of Russia tie". USA Today. Archived from the original on September 7, 2024. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  13. ^ Marchman, Tim (September 6, 2024). "What Right-Wing Influencers Actually Said in Those Tenet Media Videos". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  14. ^ Waldman, Scott (September 6, 2024). "Tenet Media spread climate denial while allegedly funded by Russia". E&E News. Archived from the original on September 8, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  15. ^ Davis, Seana (September 6, 2024). "Inside the indictment alleging secret Russian funding of U.S. content company". Logically Facts. Archived from the original on September 7, 2024. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  16. ^ Gold, Hadas (September 7, 2024). "How some of the biggest right-wing media stars ended up as unwitting puppets of Russian propaganda". CNN Business. Archived from the original on September 8, 2024. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
  17. ^ "Office of Public Affairs | Two RT Employees Indicted for Covertly Funding and Directing U.S. Company that Published Thousands of Videos in Furtherance of Russian Interests | United States Department of Justice". www.justice.gov. September 4, 2024. Archived from the original on September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
  18. ^ Spangler, Todd (September 5, 2024). "U.S. Officials Allege Russian Operatives Illegally Provided $10 Million to Fund Videos by American Right-Wing Social Media Stars". Variety. Archived from the original on September 5, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
  19. ^ Bond, Shannon; Joffe-Block, Jude; Thompson, Caitlin (September 5, 2024). "How Russian operatives covertly hired U.S. influencers to create viral videos". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  20. ^ McCausland, Phil (September 5, 2024). "Right-wing US influencers say they were victims of alleged Russian plot". BBC. Archived from the original on September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  21. ^ "US conservative influencers say they are 'victims' of Russian disinformation campaign". The Guardian. September 5, 2024. Archived from the original on September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
  22. ^ Ray, Siladitya (September 6, 2024). "YouTube Removes Alleged Russia-Funded Outlet Hosting Tim Pool, Benny Johnson Videos". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  23. ^ Merlan, Anna (September 5, 2024). "Tenet Media Shutters After Being Accused of Taking $10 Million in Covert Kremlin Funding". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on September 7, 2024. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  24. ^ Myers, Steven Lee; Bensinger, Ken; Rutenberg, Jim (September 7, 2024). "Russia Secretly Worms Its Way Into America's Conservative Media". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 7, 2024. Retrieved October 18, 2024.
  25. ^ Martynyuk, Leonid (September 5, 2024). "Top Kremlin official falsely characterizes reason for US sanctions on Russia's state media". Voice of America. Archived from the original on December 8, 2024. Retrieved December 8, 2024.
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