The Russians…Have Come
Creepy news in Nashville
The scary news this week that Russian propaganda has been manufactured in Nashville is a story that’s unfolding on several levels, none of it good. There are even a couple of implications for our political choices in elections coming soon.
On its most basic public level, the news from Justice Department and FBI that an unnamed Nashville company became a certain tool of Russian propaganda has been unsettling. Media have been careful to say why they believe the unnamed “US Company-1” was, in reality, a small shop called “Tenet Media” where misleading news items were manufactured for U.S. public (voter) consumption.
The name “Tenet” seems meant to borrow on the (generally) good name of a U.S. business called Tenet Healthcare (see a recent trade news story here) with some Nashville roots though it is headquartered in Texas.
The Washington Post reported that Tenet Media was founded by right-wing commentator Lauren Chen, who uses the online handle “Roaming Millennial,” and her husband Liam Donovan. The indictment didn’t name Chen and Donovan, and instead refers to them as “Founder-1” and “Founder-2.”
More immediately concerning for Nashvillians, in my view, is the news that this media business (connected to Russian propaganda) was doing its nefarious work in our own backyard. Tenet Media was supposedly housed in the Burton Hills office complex just south of the Green Hills Mall, in the hills between Hillsboro High School and the Covenant School. Now, with the feds having blown the whistle on them, these bad actors have high-tailed it for other accommodations.
This creepy episode also has thrown a new shadow on some of our local politics. The Nashville Scene reported this week: “Tennessee Republican leaders including U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles have regularly amplified talking points from Tenet’s talking heads. Blackburn also appeared on several podcast episodes with Chen in 2021 and 2022.” (Read the Scene story here.)
All this is hitting very close to home - and not in a good way. That Russian operatives were churning out their insidious garbage so nearby is an alarming development that’s particularly destabilizing to any sense of domestic safety.
Is it just me, or has no one else read the slightest explanation or even a denial from Blackburn or Ogles? They both are facing reelection in a few weeks. In this moment, it would help if we could hear something forthright and specific now from Blackburn and Ogles, assuming they want to help their constituents understand all this better.
For now, on this Sunday morning the “Tenet Media” story is darn creepy and so destabilizing to any sense of national security - especially as it’s being read in Middle Tennessee.
There was a time in Tennessee when the Republican Party was honorable. That time is gone. VOTE Blackburn and Ogles out!
The lack of concern, involvement and comment from Blackburn and Ogles is unfortunately not surprising. Who do they represent? Did they ever comment or propose solutions after the murders at Covenant? Vote, Vote, Vote them out, we deserve better!