Written by Vincent Cain
Former President Donald Trump- while speaking at a rally in Florence, Arizona- said that DirecTV is dropping San Diego-based OAN due to its politics and urged his supporters against using its parent AT&T’s services, “Maybe what we should do is not use AT&T,” he said at the event which OAN founder Robert Herring Sr. and son Charles Herring, the network’s president, attended and whom Trump also called “patriots” and “great, great men.”
“All I can tell you is the people that are telling the truth in America like One America News are being threatened. I love One America News … (and) I watch it all the time,” Trump said. He mentioned that OAN does a fantastic job, but the “woke executives — I don’t know what they’re doing; they have so much debt. AT&T is a company that’s in serious trouble.”
DirecTV’s announcement — which is 70% owned by AT&T- comes three months after a Reuters investigation showed that OAN’s founder testified that AT&T inspired the creation of the network. Additionally, court testimony revealed that nearly all of OAN’s revenue comes from DirecTV. DirecTV has nearly 15 million subscribers and is by far OAN’s largest carrier. DirecTV provides 90% of the conservative network’s revenue, according to testimony by OAN’s accountant.
DirecTV said in a statement, “We informed Herring Networks that, following a routine internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires.”
Liberals were cheering after the announcement to drop OAN. NAACP President Derrick Johnson claimed it was “a victory for us and the future of democracy.” Johnson added in a statement: “At a time when we are seeing our rights infringed upon, OAN only seeks to create further division. … We must continually choose truth over lies and common sense over hysteria.” Conservative pundits came to the defense of OAN. Former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs tweeted, “Corporate Media is crushing what little dissent remains”.
Photo Cred: One America News, Drew Angerer/Getty Images
