It's Russia, Stupid
Right-wing influencer Tim Pool calls it quits, and more US media platforms are revealed to have ties to Moscow.
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ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT
Right-wing influencer Tim Pool announced suddenly this week that he may cancel his show. He listed a plethora of reasons—lazy staff, struggling to find a work-life balance—but insisted money had nothing to do with it.
It’s hard to imagine a right-wing influencer who was bound to play a big role in Trump’s upcoming plans to say the election was rigged if Harris wins, and who was sure to be a major agitator of MAGA, spurring them to take action, suddenly decided to call it quits two weeks before the election.
Of course, the news also comes just a few weeks after the Department of Justice revealed that Pool’s platform, Tenet Media, was a front for Russian intelligence and that his salary was paid by little fuckers back in Moscow. And those little fuckers paid a lot: $100,000 a week for videos.
Lol, yeah, Pool. This has nothing to do with money.
As I’ve reported, the DOJ indictment of two of the Russians involved in the scheme outlines how incredibly not profitable Pool and his merry band of right-wing shitcasters are. Fully 90 percent of Tenet’s revenues came from Russia. Lauren Chen, founder of Tenet, emailed her Russian handlers and told them the right-wing influencers would not be profitable at the rates they were demanding. “[F]rom a profitability standpoint, it would be very hard for [the company] to recoup the costs [of the influencers] based on ad revenue from web traffic or sponsors alone,” she wrote.
The Russians didn’t care and moved ahead with the plan.
Now, that money has dried up. And suddenly Pool can’t see fit to carry on with his show. Probably just a coincidence.
Remember how I told you that Tenet was only the tip of the iceberg? Well…
Meet John Mark Dougan
Also this week, it was revealed that a disgraced Marine who fled to Moscow is creating deepfakes and other manipulated information targeting American audiences on behalf of Russian intelligence.
John Mark Dougan is behind a number of fake articles, including the false story that Kamala Harris had left the scene after hitting a pedestrian with her car—which appeared on a fake San Francisco news site—and the false story that Tim Walz had abused a student of his, a story that went viral. He also started the ridiculous conspiracies that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had bought two yachts and his wife had spent over a million dollars at Cartier, which I discussed last week.
Those are just a few examples. He is also behind such fake news sites as DC Weekly, Chicago Chronicle, and Atlanta Observer.
Dougan had a short and whatever the opposite of illustrious is career in the Marines. After his short stint with the military, he went into law enforcement, where he promptly pissed off a lot of people. He faced multiple internal investigations, owed a former colleague $275,000 for pepper spraying and arresting him without cause, and had several sexual assault allegations launched at him. So, he did what anyone would do: he fled to Moscow.
Dougan has claimed his work is totally independent, but documents seen by the Washington Post show that, in fact, he is paid by Russia’s military intelligence, the GRU, to produce his bullshit. He is guided by the Center for Geopolitical Expertise, which I wrote about in Class 15 and which organizes “press tours” to places like Crimea to help legitimize Russia’s role there. Of course, Dougan participated in these “press tours.”
I recommend reading the full Washington Post article about Dougan and his connections to Russian intelligence here.
Meet Ben Swann
Separately, yet another Russian platform in the US has been outed. Ben Swann describes himself as an independent journalist. He helped promote the “Pizzagate” conspiracy—that Democrats were trafficking children through the basement of a pizzeria in Washington, DC—a conspiracy I unpack in Class 3.
In April of this year, just as Congress was debating an aid package for Ukraine, Swann released a “documentary” called “Zelenskyy Unmasked,” which, through innuendo, painted Zelenskyy as corrupt. The film garnered a lot of attention in GOP circles. Donald Trump, Jr. promoted it.
I know this is going to shock you but… Swann received money from Russia. And he isn’t trying to hide it. He openly admits he has worked for Russia’s state-run propaganda machine for years and that one of his companies has made millions producing pro-Kremlin content for that propaganda machine. He has even registered with the US Department of Justice saying he is working for Russian state media.
Here’s where it gets a little slippery.
Swann has a second company, which, he claims, produces content for a US audience and is totally separate from the company that produces his pro-Russia work. Totally separate! Not connected at all! So, one company—owned by Swann—produces pro-Russia content. The other company—also owned by Swann but totally separate—produces “independent journalism” for US audiences.
“The only connection is that I own both companies,” Swann told the Associated Press.
Well, that’s kind of a big connection. Also, a bunch of people who appear on RT and in other pro-Russia content—like former disgraced Marine and convicted pedophile Scott Ritter and Tara Reade, who tried with no evidence to accuse Joe Biden of assaulting her and then fled to Russia where she was welcomed by convicted Russian spy Mariia Butina—also appear in content Swann produced “independently” for US audiences.
Swann admits his US media company isn’t profitable, but insists the large chunks of money he has received from Russia for his other company has absolutely not influenced the “independent journalism” work of his US company.
THE WEEK’S LINKS
A roundup of things you should be reading
RUSSIAN INFLUENCE
Russian visa scandal: ‘We lost control’ over system, Polish foreign minister laments (Politico)
Russian October Surprise? Don’t be Silly (CEPA)
Russian disinformation is growing in Germany (DW)
Conservatives hyped anti-Ukraine videos created by a TV producer who also worked for Russian media (AP)
Russia’s Latest Target in Africa: US-Funded Anti-Malaria Program (NYT)
RUSSIA WILL FUND UKRAINE’S DEFENSE AGAINST RUSSIA
G7 Finalizes $50 Billion Ukraine Loan Backed by Russian Assets (NYT)
Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?
I continue to struggle to understand how America fell apart without a shot being fired. Putin, Xi, Kim et al must on the one hand be happy to see America taken down but on the other worry that their kingdoms could fall to the same illness that America has contracted. Bizzaro world.
As for Tim Pool, under a cloud for sure, possible Asset Forfeiture at some point, FARA violations if he knew where the money was coming from, as well as a potential indictment of Chen, and others down the road would enhance a person to step back and fade from view.
Of course you could look at it another way, he may have been told/ordered to drop out as he may in fact have struck a deal to be a witness against others. First to plea, first to flee. A case like that won't just be a one and done I'm out deal. Prosecutors will want or be encouraged to make examples.
The other issue is the promised by DOJ, but so far never delivered SDA list of the 600 known influencers in the USA and the roughly 1900 others around the globe. Interesting how it was promised within a week of the Pool Revelations, but quickly disappeared from view after.
The list would have gone a very long way towards allowing voters to see just how many were under the influence of RT and their sub organizations. Not having that list leaves a lot of people who can still produce malign Russian influence
It's possible that DOJ sent them all a message by saying they were identified and then see how many would shut down, go to ground or attempt to leave or flee the country. Maybe the mere telling that the DOJ knows who they are and saw what they did will be enough.