A particular report published today from Reuters reveals that telecom large AT&T is likely one of the chief architects and continuous funders of the unconventional rightwing MAGA cultist channel, One American Information Community. First launched in 2013, OANN operated for years as a platform for conservative speaking factors so unhinged they made Fox Information look wise by comparability. Main as much as the 2016 election after which all through the next Trump presidency, OANN turned the de facto propaganda arm for Donald’s proto-fascistic goals.
In a 2019 deposition obtained by Reuters, OANN founder and CEO Robert Herring, Sr. defined that AT&T execs are straight liable for the channel’s inception. “They instructed us they wished a conservative community,” Herring stated. “They solely had one, which was Fox Information, they usually had seven others on the opposite [leftwing] aspect. After they stated that, I jumped to it and constructed one.”
OANN’s main viewership stems from DirecTV — AT&T presently owns a 70-percent share within the firm. Herring says he was supplied $250 million for OANN in 2019, however that with out their viewers base courtesy virtually completely of DirecTV, an accountant for the corporate said its worth “can be zero.”
Trump’s golden seal of approval — OANN’s rise to unlucky socio-political prominence could be attributed virtually completely to Donald Trump, who persistently fawns over the channel’s bullshit pipeline. Reuters notes that in his last two years in energy, Trump supplied blurbs for @OANN on Twitter to his 88 million followers a minimal of 120 occasions.
Nonetheless going robust — OANN’s success continued each within the months main as much as, and after, Donald’s last days in workplace. The channel usually helped gasoline the flames for MAGA cultists’ conspiracy theories relating to rampant election fraud that supposedly price their Expensive Chief a second time period. The frenzy culminated throughout the lethal January 6 rebel try in Washington DC, the place a minimum of one OANN flag was seen being held by somebody within the mob of traitors.
Arduous to see how this may change issues — Sadly, as damning as the brand new data is courtesy of Reuters, there doesn’t look like a complete lot to do in regards to the state of affairs. It appears each AT&T and OANN are nicely inside their rights to collaborate as they do, and barring antitrust evaluations of the telecom’s DirecTV buyout or coordinated, profitable protest campaigns, OANN is right here to remain for some time.
