The Tenet Media Guys Are Worse Than Useful Idiots
They’re collaborators.
On the Secret Podcast today Bill Kristol sat in for Sarah and we had a long conversation about why it’s so dangerous when one party has to play perfect baseball. Also, we talked about how weird it is that there are more Republicans who got onboard with Trump after January 6th than there are Republicans who broke with him because of January 6th.
Oh, and we talked about Tucker and his Nazi historian. It’s a pretty good show. You can get it here.
1. Russia Russia Russia
I have three questions about the Tenet media influence operation, in which the Russian government funneled $10 million to conservative journalists YouTubers influencers.
Question #1: What are Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, and Benny Johnson going to do with the money now?
Rubin, Pool, and Johnson claim that they are “victims”—their word—in this story. Okay. I accept that. But when someone is a victim of a scheme, he does not usually end up with a pile of money as a result of it. So if these gentlemen are victims then I expect they will either give the ill-gotten money back to the Russian government, or give it away to charity, yes?
I’m sure that doing so would be a hardship. Parting with money you’ve already counted can be painful. But that’s what victims do—they endure pain. And that’s why the justice system exists: So that Rubin, Pool, and Johnson can seek restitution against Tenet Media to compensate them for this hardship.
But if Rubin, Pool, and Johnson aren’t going to give the money back—well, that wouldn’t make them victims, would it? It would make them profiteers.
Question #2: Will the revelation that the Russian government was manipulating them because of their support for Russia and Donald Trump cause Rubin, Pool, and Johnson to reconsider their support for Russia and/or Donald Trump?
Let’s say you’re an observer in a dispute between Bob and Jim.
You believe that Bob is good and Jim is bad. You start telling people this.
Then, later, you discover that Bob was manipulating you without your knowledge.
Wouldn’t that lead you to reconsider your initial position on the relative merits of the two men?
Would it not lead you to question whether or not your views of Bob were mistaken in the first place? After all, if he was so good, he wouldn’t have caused you harm—turned you into a victim—by manipulating you. Further, if your beliefs about Jim were based on information that you now realize might have been manipulated—by Bob, in fact—then wouldn’t you naturally look at Jim fresh eyes?
And if not, why not?
2. Knowing
Question #3: How could they not have known?
I am intimately familiar with the economics of content creation. I assume that Messrs. Rubin, Pool, and Johnson are as well. Let me share some of that knowledge with you: The numbers don’t add up.
This is going to take a minute, so walk with me.