DirecTV’s loss could be hampered by Reuters

By John Shiffman

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The largest satellite provider in the United States said Friday night that it would leave One America News, a move that could financially disrupt the right-wing television network known for fueling conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

AT & T’s (NYSE 🙂 70% DirecTV forecast comes three months after a Reuters investigation revealed that the founder of OAN was the driving force behind AT & T’s network creation. Court testimony also showed that the OAN receives almost all of its revenue from DirecTV.

To read the Reuters report, click here: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-oneamerica-att

Reuters reports that AT&T and DirecTV have received calls from some liberal groups to remove the OAN, a favorite of former President Donald Trump, as the network has become a major source of false claims about elections and COVID vaccines.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden said COVID’s conspiracy theories were life-threatening. “I make a special call to social media companies and media: Please deal with the misinformation and misinformation in your sessions,” Biden said. “It must be stopped.”

OAN is owned by San Diego Herring Networks, a family of conservative technology entrepreneurs. Robert Herring Sr. the CEO did not respond to requests for comments by email and telephone. In an interview with Reuters last year, he said his network had given him an important voice. “If I think I’m right, I’ll go,” he said.

DirecTV, with an estimated 15 million subscribers, is OAN’s largest carrier. According to the testimony of the OAN accountant examined by Reuters, DirecTV provided 90% of the revenues of the Conservative network.

“We informed Herring Networks that, following a regular internal review, we have no plans to enter into any new contracts when our current agreement expires,” DirecTV said in a statement.

The OAN-DirectTV contract will expire in the coming months. DirecTV began broadcasting in April 2017 after the OAN, OAN and AT&T negotiated a dispute over alleged oral promises in negotiations.

On Twitter (NYSE :), some conservatives expressed outrage that DirecTV and AT&T were planning to leave OAN. “The corporate media is suppressing the little remaining disagreement,” tweeted former Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs.

Trump’s right-wing side, however, has strong networks on television and on the Internet, including Fox News, a conservative cable news program created by Rupert Murdoch.

The Liberals were delighted with the news. NAACP President Derrick Johnson called it “for us and a victory for the future of democracy.” In a statement, Johnson added: “At a time when we are violating our rights, the OAN seeks only to create more divisions.… We must constantly choose truth over lies and meaning over hysteria.

The news also comes after a lawsuit was filed on December 23 by two Georgian election officials accusing the OAN and lawyer Rudy Giuliani Trump of spreading false pretensions about them after the 2020 presidential election. The claims were rejected by state authorities. The OAN has denied any wrongdoing.

DirecTV did not specify why it planned to remove the OAN. Earlier, an AT&T spokesman said the company broadcasts “a lot of news channels that offer views of the political spectrum.”

A research report in Reuters in October cited sworn statements in which the founder of the OAN and his son claimed that the inspiration for the conservative network came from AT&T executives.

“We were told they wanted a Conservative network,” the Herring senior said in a 2019 statement. “They had only one, Fox News, and they had seven others [leftwing] side. When they said that, I jumped in and built one. ”

In a 2020 court proceeding, a transcript shows, an OAN lawyer told the judge, “If Herring Networks, for example, were lost or not renewed on DirecTV, the company would suspend it tomorrow.”