Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson addressed allegations that a company they were associated with had been paid to publish videos with messages in favour of Russia

Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson addressed allegations that a company they were associated with had been paid to publish videos with messages in favour of Russia

A number of high-profile, conservative influencers in the US have said they are “victims” of an alleged Russian disinformation campaign, after the Biden administration accused Moscow of carrying out a sustained campaign to influence the outcome of November’s presidential elections.

Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson published statements on Wednesday evening addressing allegations that a US content creation company they were associated with had been provided with nearly $10m from Russian state media employees to publish videos with messages in favour of Moscow’s interests and agenda, including over the war in Ukraine.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
    58·
    3 months ago

    Things that are objectively true:

    They parroted pro-Putin talking points.

    They were paid by Russia.

    They claim to be victims of a Russian smear campaign.

    How does that even work?

    • zaph@sh.itjust.works
      4·
      3 months ago

      Well you see they thought they were pushing Russian propaganda out of the goodness of their hearts. Turns out they could have been paid to do so and are now victims because someone else was paid to do it while they did it for free.

    • brbposting@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      They were paid by Russia.

      I think that they can dispute that unless you add the word “indirectly“ before “paid”?

      Obviously it does look slightly worse to actually be paid in rubles, and obviously it’s still bad even if it’s pass-through, but want to be clear when we’re stating objective facts.

      Also I may be wrong but that was my impression.