Pro-Trump News Outlet One America News Mostly Funded By AT&T – Report
90 percent of OAN revenue in 2020 came from AT&T contract: report
AT&T Is Funding Right-Wing Conspiracy Network OAN, Reuters Reports
The world’s largest communications company has been bankrolling a right-wing conspiracy network, an investigation by Reuters revealed.
The damning Reuters report, published Wednesday, shows that AT&T helped fund and create One America News ― a right-wing network famous for its fawning coverage of former President Donald Trump, and for spreading lies about the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost.
Without AT&T’s $250 million offering, OAN’s value “would be zero,” according to an accountant’s court testimony obtained by Reuters. More from the publication:
OAN founder and chief executive Robert Herring Sr has testified that the inspiration to launch OAN in 2013 came from AT&T executives.
“They told us they wanted a conservative network,” Herring said during a 2019 deposition seen by Reuters. “They only had one, which was Fox News, and they had seven others on the other [leftwing] side. When they said that, I jumped to it and built one.”
Since then, AT&T has been a crucial source of funds flowing into OAN, providing tens of millions of dollars in revenue, court records show. Ninety percent of OAN’s revenue came from a contract with AT&T-owned television platforms, including satellite broadcaster DirecTV, according to 2020 sworn testimony by an OAN accountant.
Herring has testified he was offered $250 million for OAN in 2019. Without the DirecTV deal, the accountant said under oath, the network’s value “would be zero.”
Dallas-based AT&T, a mobile-phone and Internet provider, also owns entertainment giant Warner Media, which includes CNN and HBO. AT&T acquired DirecTV in 2015 and in August spun off the satellite service, retaining a 70% share in the new, independently managed company. AT&T’s total U.S. television subscriber base, including satellite and streaming services, fell from 26 million in 2015 to 15.4 million as of August.