One of the many pitfalls with the citizen journalism/social media as news ecosystem is that, for many of these influencers, it's a job. There are a lot of ways to make money as an influencer/opinion leader. Lots of them have Substacks, for instance. Now, this has some pretty obvious problems - audience capture is the biggest. Are you really going to tell your audience something they don't want to hear and lose subscribers?
But beyond that issue, another is that these people make money a lot of different ways. And if you've got a big audience, a pretty obvious arrangement is that people will pay you to say things they like. This isn't new - think of the orange squares and Fyre Festival. Tons of brands do this.
Anyway, moving back to politics, it was revealed last year that Tenet Media, a group that paid out some truly huge sums to guys like Tim Pool and Benny Johnson, was in fact a Russian organization. At least one was getting $400,000 a month. This was conducted via an intermediary, so I will grant it is possible that they didn't know exactly what they were doing. That said...who is really paying you that much for content? Should have raised alarm bells:
But there's a new one on the horizon, and it's an intra-MAGA spat. Some guy named Brick Suit (??) posted this last week:
That's pretty weird - our little Malaysian friend had been anti-soda in the past! And those are suspiciously similar posts opposing the RFK proposal. Well, turns out that's not a coincidence:
FYI, Nick here is a big MAGA guy - this isn't just libs sniping at them.
Anyway, this is incredibly common. But I thought it was an interesting story and another reason to be suspicious of getting your information solely from people on the internet. They may be literally getting paid to tell you whatever they are posting.
But beyond that issue, another is that these people make money a lot of different ways. And if you've got a big audience, a pretty obvious arrangement is that people will pay you to say things they like. This isn't new - think of the orange squares and Fyre Festival. Tons of brands do this.
Anyway, moving back to politics, it was revealed last year that Tenet Media, a group that paid out some truly huge sums to guys like Tim Pool and Benny Johnson, was in fact a Russian organization. At least one was getting $400,000 a month. This was conducted via an intermediary, so I will grant it is possible that they didn't know exactly what they were doing. That said...who is really paying you that much for content? Should have raised alarm bells:
Right-wing influencers were duped to work for covert Russian operation, US says
An indictment alleges a media company linked to six conservative influencers — including Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson — was secretly funded by Russian state media employees.
apnews.com
But there's a new one on the horizon, and it's an intra-MAGA spat. Some guy named Brick Suit (??) posted this last week:
That's pretty weird - our little Malaysian friend had been anti-soda in the past! And those are suspiciously similar posts opposing the RFK proposal. Well, turns out that's not a coincidence:
FYI, Nick here is a big MAGA guy - this isn't just libs sniping at them.
Anyway, this is incredibly common. But I thought it was an interesting story and another reason to be suspicious of getting your information solely from people on the internet. They may be literally getting paid to tell you whatever they are posting.
