SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Kimberly Guilfoyle speaks during an interview with One America News Network during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando on February 26, 2021. (Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
DirecTV to Drop Rabidly Pro-Trump One America News
"Millions of viewers will no longer be subsidizing this hateful content with their monthly pay-TV bills," said one campaigner.
Jan 15, 2022
Facing a wave of grassroots pressure, one of the largest television providers in the U.S. reportedly plans to drop the far-right, rabidly pro-Trump One America News Network, an outlet that has come under fire for disseminating falsehoods about the 2020 election results, the coronavirus pandemic, and other major issues.
Bloomberg reported late Friday that DirecTV has informed OANN's owner, Herring Networks Inc., that it intends to "stop carrying the company's two channels when their contract expires" in early April.
The move comes after civil rights organizations and other advocacy groups called on DirecTV and AT&T--which owns a 70% stake in the satellite-TV provider--to sever ties with OANN for "spreading anti-democratic disinformation, promoting Covid-19 conspiracy theories, and fueling racism."
According to a recent Reuters investigation, AT&T--the world's largest telecom company--"has been a crucial source of funds flowing into OAN, providing tens of millions of dollars in revenue."
"The dangerous conspiracies and lies regularly aired on OANN have worsened a public-health crisis and given oxygen to baseless claims about the irrefutable outcome of our last presidential election," Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights at Free Press, said in a statement Friday.
"OANN can say whatever it wants on its own soapbox, but it does not have an automatic right to a national audience through DirecTV," Benavidez added. "We welcome the news that DirecTV has made the decision to stop carrying OANN, especially knowing millions of viewers will no longer be subsidizing this hateful content with their monthly pay-TV bills."
Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, also applauded DirecTV's move, calling OANN "a cauldron of misinformation and extremism."
"Without DirecTV, OAN would certainly not exist in its current form and possibly not at all," said Carusone. "Now that OAN's anchor distributor has dropped them, Verizon FiOS (OAN's second major distributor) should follow suit. And certainly no other cable provider should pick them up."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Facing a wave of grassroots pressure, one of the largest television providers in the U.S. reportedly plans to drop the far-right, rabidly pro-Trump One America News Network, an outlet that has come under fire for disseminating falsehoods about the 2020 election results, the coronavirus pandemic, and other major issues.
Bloomberg reported late Friday that DirecTV has informed OANN's owner, Herring Networks Inc., that it intends to "stop carrying the company's two channels when their contract expires" in early April.
The move comes after civil rights organizations and other advocacy groups called on DirecTV and AT&T--which owns a 70% stake in the satellite-TV provider--to sever ties with OANN for "spreading anti-democratic disinformation, promoting Covid-19 conspiracy theories, and fueling racism."
According to a recent Reuters investigation, AT&T--the world's largest telecom company--"has been a crucial source of funds flowing into OAN, providing tens of millions of dollars in revenue."
"The dangerous conspiracies and lies regularly aired on OANN have worsened a public-health crisis and given oxygen to baseless claims about the irrefutable outcome of our last presidential election," Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights at Free Press, said in a statement Friday.
"OANN can say whatever it wants on its own soapbox, but it does not have an automatic right to a national audience through DirecTV," Benavidez added. "We welcome the news that DirecTV has made the decision to stop carrying OANN, especially knowing millions of viewers will no longer be subsidizing this hateful content with their monthly pay-TV bills."
Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, also applauded DirecTV's move, calling OANN "a cauldron of misinformation and extremism."
"Without DirecTV, OAN would certainly not exist in its current form and possibly not at all," said Carusone. "Now that OAN's anchor distributor has dropped them, Verizon FiOS (OAN's second major distributor) should follow suit. And certainly no other cable provider should pick them up."
Facing a wave of grassroots pressure, one of the largest television providers in the U.S. reportedly plans to drop the far-right, rabidly pro-Trump One America News Network, an outlet that has come under fire for disseminating falsehoods about the 2020 election results, the coronavirus pandemic, and other major issues.
Bloomberg reported late Friday that DirecTV has informed OANN's owner, Herring Networks Inc., that it intends to "stop carrying the company's two channels when their contract expires" in early April.
The move comes after civil rights organizations and other advocacy groups called on DirecTV and AT&T--which owns a 70% stake in the satellite-TV provider--to sever ties with OANN for "spreading anti-democratic disinformation, promoting Covid-19 conspiracy theories, and fueling racism."
According to a recent Reuters investigation, AT&T--the world's largest telecom company--"has been a crucial source of funds flowing into OAN, providing tens of millions of dollars in revenue."
"The dangerous conspiracies and lies regularly aired on OANN have worsened a public-health crisis and given oxygen to baseless claims about the irrefutable outcome of our last presidential election," Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights at Free Press, said in a statement Friday.
"OANN can say whatever it wants on its own soapbox, but it does not have an automatic right to a national audience through DirecTV," Benavidez added. "We welcome the news that DirecTV has made the decision to stop carrying OANN, especially knowing millions of viewers will no longer be subsidizing this hateful content with their monthly pay-TV bills."
Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, also applauded DirecTV's move, calling OANN "a cauldron of misinformation and extremism."
"Without DirecTV, OAN would certainly not exist in its current form and possibly not at all," said Carusone. "Now that OAN's anchor distributor has dropped them, Verizon FiOS (OAN's second major distributor) should follow suit. And certainly no other cable provider should pick them up."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.