Tenet Media Explainer

Matt Christiansen | September 8, 2024

Background:

On September 4, 2024, two Russian nationals were indicted on federal charges of conspiring to launder money and failing to register as foreign agents in support of Tenet Media, a company with whom I have been contracted for the last year. The indictment does not allege any wrongdoing by me or the other commentators on Tenet (I am referenced in the indictment as ‘Commentator-6,’ page 22). The indictment does not allege that any of the commentators knew of the alleged Russian funding of the company, $10M. The indictment alleges that Tenet management, in cooperation with these Russian nationals, deceived some of the Tenet commentators about the source of their funding.

Tenet Media was led by Lauren Chen (formerly known as Roaming Millennial) and her husband Liam Donovan, who were raided by the FBI when the indictment was unsealed. I have been friendly with Lauren for years. She approached me in June 2023 to say she was starting a new media company, and would like to negotiate a deal to host some of my content exclusively.

Per the agreement we reached and I signed in July 2023, I was contracted to provide two 10-minute videos and one one-hour live stream to Tenet Media per week, which I did starting November 6, 2023, until the indictment was unsealed on Wednesday.

I was never directed in any way on my content:

At no point in my 10 months of providing content for Tenet was I told what to produce or not to produce, what to say or not to say, or given any creative direction on my product. In negotiating our agreement, I was most concerned about retaining editorial control. Lauren and Liam agreed. They wanted only the right to host my material as it already existed, not to direct it creatively. There is no evidence in the indictment that any creative direction was ever given to me, because none exists. Because it did not happen. And I would have quit if that sort of influence was exerted upon me. My content on Tenet was exactly the same in subject matter and presentation style as the content I have produced on my own platforms for years.

I produced all my Tenet content in full:

Every video and live stream I made for Tenet was not only organized and written by me, it was entirely produced by me. With the exception of one part-time assistant who I hired at my own discretion and cost to help me secure guests and handle other administrative tasks unrelated to technical production, I recorded every product, I edited every product, and I posted every product on Tenet’s platforms. There was nobody at Tenet who intervened in any of my productions from conception in my mind until the point of publication on the internet. I handled them all solely.

I was paid fair market value for my content:

There has been much attention on the compensation of some of the creators at Tenet, per the indictment. I was paid fair market value for my material. Under the terms of my contract, which I am now disclosing in the interest of honesty and transparency, despite knowing this disclosure violates my contract, my compensation was $144,000 for one year’s worth of content: 88 short videos, and 44 live streams. That is a commitment to 132 pieces of content, at a rate of about $1,100 per production. Each production of mine takes somewhere between six and 12 hours to make, meaning my compensation amounted to about $100 per hour. These numbers generally align with what I could expect to earn with this content on my own, plus a small percentage for the right to exclusivity and sole ownership of the end product.

Since I did not complete a year’s worth of content in 10 months (I completed and posted 76 videos and 40 live streams), I was not compensated the full value of my contract. In fact, I still have not received payment for the work I did in August and probably never will, meaning I worked that entire month for free. I was paid nine times by Tenet, totaling $108,000. That is not take-home pay. Much of that money was paid to my assistant. Much of that money covered the cost of production, which was all assumed by me, per the contract. Much of that money was paid or set aside for state and federal taxes. I was not grossly enriched by this contract. I was paid fairly for honest work.

When people question why I was not more skeptical about this arrangement, that is why. I was not offered some unbelievable sum of money. There was no initial financial offer made to me at all, actually. Lauren asked me what the cost of exclusivity would look like, and when I gave her a number aligned with what my material earns on its own, we agreed after brief negotiation. There was nothing suspicious about that interaction at all - it was a fair agreement with a trusted friend.

I do not believe Lauren and Liam intentionally deceived me:

As of this date, September 8, 2024, based on my own experience and knowledge from others on the inside, I do not believe Lauren and Liam intentionally deceived me about the source of their funding or anything else about the company, as the indictment alleges was done to other Tenet content creators (indictment page 2). With a right to change my opinion according to new information and evidence, I believe Lauren and Liam were deceived. I do not know the true identity of their investor or investors, and I do not know the conversations that were had between them.

I believe Lauren and Liam were sincere and truthful to their knowledge with me throughout. If someone did deceive them, I do not know who this person is or what this person’s purposes are, but it is my belief that Lauren and Liam did not approach me with malicious intent to deceive me or give me false information.

For more discussion and analysis of the story:

Please see my live stream with my friend Frank from when the story broke on Wednesday (first half hour or so), and see Sunday’s episode of the Matt & Blonde Show (first half).

For inquiry:

Please contact Matt, matt@mattchristiansenmedia.com.