The Department of Justice recently filed an indictment against a U.S.-based media company Tenet Media, saying the company was a front for Russian state media. Tenet Media has partnered with popular internet personalities like Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin.
The indictment does not blame the influencers, claiming the media company had misinformed them. Instead, the indictment charges employees of Russia Today (RT), a Russian state media asset, with laundering money through corporations to produce media content in the United States that served Russian interests.
“We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged crime,” Johnson, one of the influencers involved with the indictment, said.
The indictment also does not name Tenet Media, merely referring to “U.S. Media Company-1,” but Tenet Media was quickly discovered to share all the specifications of the company in the indictment.
The defendants are Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, employees of Russia Today, who are charged with laundering nearly $10 million dollars to Tenet Media.
“Using multiple fake personas, Afanasyeva edited, posted, and directed the posting by U.S. Company-1 of hundreds of videos,” the indictment reads.
The indictment alleges that Tenet media had been creating and spreading content that challenged American opposition to Russia.
“The subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine,” the indictment stated.
This indictment is met with skepticism by some who draw connections between this event with the supposed U.S. government malpractice when investigating Donald Trump for alleged Russian collusion in 2016.
However, there are key differences between the two events. Notably, the internet personalities involved with Tenet Media do not deny the allegations. They bring up that, if the indictment is true, they were misled and did not know the origins of the funds they were receiving.
Some of the influencers involved claim that Tenet Media had no influence over their editorial decisions and that the business deal made with the company was purely for licensing.
“The Culture War show is a conversation show on various topics, the subject matter of the show editorially is there’s no thought into it … the first episode that actually appeared on Tenet was about skateboarding,” Pool, one of the involved influencers, said.
However, the indictment alleges that those involved with Tenet Media had been influencing the editorial decisions of the influencers, referred to as commentators.
“AFANASYEVA demanded that Founder-1 press U.S. Company-1’s hired commentators to share U.S. Company-1 content with the commentators’ pre-existing audiences — thus magnifying the impact of RT’s messaging through U.S. Company-1,” the indictment reads.
The validity of the indictment is not entirely clear. Even if the indictment is true, it is hard to tell what content produced by Tenet Media and the company’s related influencers was direct propaganda.
Additionally, some of the influencers’ opinions may naturally lean toward a view sympathetic to Russia. This in itself is not a good enough reason to assume the opinion is compromised.
However, the threat of foreign interference in American public life is still a real threat. The possibility of government influence over media and public opinion, whether foreign or domestic, should always be taken seriously.
