How some of the internet's most popular pro-Trump pundits ended up as paid messengers for Russian propaganda
The video introducing Tenet Media hit many common conservative tropes: Mainstream media couldn’t be trusted.
The video introducing Tenet Media hit many common conservative tropes: Mainstream media couldn’t be trusted. Free speech was under attack. Independent and uncensored voices were sorely needed.
It featured the six commentators who would be the faces of the operation, already some of the most-followed voices in the increasingly crowded and influential world of online conservative punditry. Over a dramatic electronic music track, each of them offered a brief reason why Tenet was needed now more than ever.
“Maybe they take us down individually,” said Matt Christiansen, a conservative YouTuber and podcaster, in the video. “It’s a lot harder to do when we’re grouped together in this way.”
Less than a year after that video was posted to YouTube, where it still has fewer than 9,000 views, Tenet has found itself at the center of a major U.S. government action to crackdown on Russian interference in the 2024 election. Prosecutors alleged two employees of the Russia-backed media network RT funneled almost $10 million to six commentators through a company that appears to be Tenet.
Though the media company and the commentators went unnamed, their details match those of Tenet and Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Lauren Southern, Tayler Hansen and Christiansen.
Rating: 5