A Tennessee-based media company with prominent MAGA personalities on its roster has been accused of receiving millions of dollars from two employees of Russian state-backed media company Russia Today (RT) in order to influence American viewers.
According to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, the Russian employees created a $10 million scheme “to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.”
DOJ confirms what 1/4 of the country knew 8 years ago
I have no idea how it didn’t end with “Russia if your listening, dig up her emails!” And then they fucking did that.
The worst part about it is that it’s just as useful as what we’ve been saying: not at all.
When it’s their DOJ then everything that comes out is entirely factual and can be trusted. When it’s the oppositions DOJ then suddenly it’s all lies and nothing is true, they expect the opposite to be true.
So in this instance we get reassured that we knew what was up and for Magoos they can “rest easy” knowing that it’s all “democrat lies” so this story is almost entirely meaningless unfortunately :(
It’s just tiresome to see people blink straight past the billions injected by our at-home crop of fascist oligarchs and fixate squarely on “Facebook took $46k from a Russian media group to post ForwardsFromGrandma memes” as the singular reason for an electoral outcome.
Would that Americans could hold an ember of hate for the Koch Brothers that rivals the bonfire they feel towards Tucker Carlson and Russia Today.
Milquetoast should investigate who’s been buying all the shares of the inflated Trump media. There is no way a site that loses millions of revenue every quarter should be valued as high as it was.
It’s an out in the open laundering scheme for sure.
Wait, there’s even more. The conman moves into every money laundering scheme he encounters. Now DonOLD, the felon, is slithering into Bitcoin.
With noting, I don’t know the logistics of how Truth Social was integrated into the original company’s stock, but as of January 1st, I don’t believe this stock included Truth Social into its value.
That said, January 1st value was 17.45. Current value is 16.98. This means Truth Social added -.47 to the share price. -.47 so far…
It wouldn’t be surprising to hear the influencers knew full well they were being funded by Russia.
Nor would it be surprising to learn they were completely duped since they’re into that sort of thing–just like their followers.
The NPR story I just recently listened to seems to claim it’s a mix of the two. Or maybe a bunch of them are lying.
I saw an X thread that alleged that Lauren Chen and her husband were the ones who worked with the Russians and tricked the other commentators, although they thought that things looked a lil bit fishy.
https://x.com/AGHamilton29/status/1831429242292465879
But that’s not proof, just an X thread, I’d like to see more analysis on this.
Edit: Which NPR show did you listen to? I’d like to hear that episode.
I wish I knew, I was driving at the time. Maybe the morning edition or Upfirst? With the app, they just start playing until I select something specific.
I have both those podcasts in my app so I’ll see if I can find the story in their most recent episodes. Thanks!
Duped but I’d say more than willingly duped since it’s not hard to pick up on the slant of the ‘news’ angle they are being pushed to put out. Someone is giving you $100k a month and they decided to not rock the boat.
I figured everyone just assumed that.
Knowing it and proving it to a judge, different ballgames entirely. Same ball, but it only gets hit in one of them.
They’re also different colours and one is fuzzy like a tennis ball; but I think we’re getting off the point now
Which of the balls are yellow like a tennis ball, though, and should someone see a doctor about that?
I can tell you for a fact that my one remaining MAGA friend is hyper-fixated on “liberals believing liberal propaganda”. I am sure that’s a well-researched safety mechanism from russian counterintelligence.
It also fits snugly in the whole cult mentality, which is as old as the hills.
liberals believing liberal propaganda
Yeah I had a coworker who said that crap constantly, while endlessly parroting every talking point from his daily outrage channels.
The thing is, $10 Million is like twenty-five cents to these groups.
Subverting democracy is cheap as dirt.
Subverting democracy is cheap as dirt.
Putin switched to psyops when Russia was short on money for military hardware and it has been a fabulous success for him.
Like the proverbial shooting fish in a barrel.
Putin switched to psyops when Russia was short on money for military hardware
Russia, famous as a country without any mass media or clandestine propaganda networks prior to 2022.
You would think that if $10M was insignificant, they wouldn’t accept it from Russia given the implications of being found out.
Kinda reeks of desperation if you ask me…
It’s not insignificant to these Göebbels-houses, it’s insignificant to the oligarchs that fund it.
When are we going to do AIPAC?
Hopefully next.
The Lobby is a series of documentaries produced by Al Jazeera that investigate the influence of the Israel lobby in the United Kingdom and in the United States and their relationship to the BDS movement
Blocked screening and subsequent leak
On February 8, 2018, it was reported that Qatari leaders had reassured the leaders of Jewish American organisations that Al Jazeera would not be airing the US companion series. According to Haaretz, the Qatari government had reportedly hired Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s former aide Nicolas Muzin to open communications channels with Jewish American organisations. Earlier, the network had sent letters to several American pro-Israel organisations informing them that their employees would appear in the documentary. These letters generated speculation that the Qatari government had reneged on its earlier promise to block Al Jazeera from screening the controversial documentary which, like the earlier British series, had utilized clandestine footage and recordings of pro-Israel activists.
Al Jazeera’s decision not to screen the documentary drew criticism from Clayton Swisher, who accused the network of capitulation to outside pressure. Swisher said that the practice of using undercover investigators “is used by many international broadcasters, including BBC and CNN, and is carefully managed, through multiple layers of legal and editorial review, to ensure it is performed consistently with local laws, industry regulations, and our own Code of Ethics”. Swisher took a sabbatical from Al Jazeera due to the network’s failure to respond to attacks on the project and the lack of transparency around the network’s decision to delay the broadcast. In March 2018, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers including Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer, Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin, and Ted Cruz penned a letter urging United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate whether Al Jazeera should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. They also urged the Justice Department to investigate reports that the network had infiltrated non-profit organisations and accused Al Jazeera of broadcasting antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American content. On April 10, 2018, the Zionist Organization of America’s president Morton Klein claimed credit for lobbying the Qatari government not to screen Al Jazeera’s companion documentary series focusing on American pro-Israel lobby.
Clayton Swisher’s social credit score is completely fucked, let me tell you what.
Watch closely as all the other right wing media companies start trying to cover up their own Russian connections.
Nice that it came to the light, but it was long clear that Putin supports his top agent to get back in the White House so he can get easy access to top secret papers again. I think we can safelöy assume that each and every piece of paper stamped “Top Secret” that Trump stored in various non-suitable places and forgot to return has found it’s way to Russia, at least as a copy.
Charge the employees with being traitors.
That, unusually, IS one of the protected speech rights of the first amendment.
As opposed to twitter accusing meta of suppressing their speech or whatever private-entity arguments we normally see.
Demented rapist “predisents” who plan shitty failed coups should absolutely be charged with non-wartime-treason, or sedition. But media outlets spewing garbage is, for better or for worse, our first amendment right.
I don’t think knowingly doing millions in business with a hostile nation we have sanctions against is going to meet the definition of “free speech”.
It is.
I’m curious, are you saying that you personally think receiving money from a hostile foreign country in violation of sanctions should be allowed as free speech, or is this some sort of contrarian reference to Citizens United saying that money is speech in elections?
What normally happens when a foreign agent pays an American to act against the best interest of their country? Genuine question, I’m not being sarcastic I promise.
If a foreign spy convinces a US citizen to give them information that strengthens the foreign power, even if done unwittingly, are they held responsible?
This is a slightly different situation, but at its core it’s Russian spies paying off Americans to weaken their own country.
No way bro.
There’s an interesting bit here that shows how Russian disinformation is directed to play out. The redacted bits are kinda hilarious as with the context around it it’s abundantly obvious which party is which.
“Manga” lol
Trump no yume: Musume ni kisu suru
(Auto translation, I hope it’s at least slightly correct lol)
“to kisu suru”
Called it.
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-bombshell-alleges-maga-media-group-is-backed-by-russian-money
