Recent Reports That AT&T Is Behind The Creation and Financing of Far Right, Trump Loving News Network OANN Only Confirms What We Already Knew About The Telecom Giant

By Ty Ross

As the 2020 presidential election was getting down to the wire a ‘new’ news network appeared to come out of nowhere. All of a sudden, little known OANN began popping up as a source of right-wing news and hosting interviews with Trump staffers and allies. This network, with poor visuals that looked as if someone had set up a camcorder in an abandoned basement, was getting interviews with sought after Trump associates and employees. Who was this OAN News, and where did they come from?

While it may seem that OAN News manifested out of nowhere in the past two years, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Their story began nearly a decade ago in 2013. They didn’t turn into a far right, Trump promoting network either. No, they were created just for that purpose. And groomed through the years to be exactly who they are right now. Created, funded and encouraged by none other than the world’s largest telecom company, AT&T.

AT&T approached AWE network owner, Robert Herring expressing a need and desire for a competitive conservative network to balance out the number of left leaning news outlets. Herring jumped at the task. Or rather opportunity, depending on where you are sitting, and created OANN.

OAN News flew relatively low under the radar for the first few years but started to gain traction during Trump’s presidential run in 2015. This was around the same time that AT&T would merge with Time Warner Cable making them the new owners of CNN. Which was considered to be the number one news network of the left. AT&T also acquired satellite provider DirectTV. Who, coupled with AT&T would provide OAN with almost all of its operating revenue. Though they would deny having a financial stake in the news network, statement contradicted by both Robert Herring and accounting records during testimony. According to Herring, OAN would be worth nothing if not for the financial support of both AT&T and DirectTV that keep it afloat. It makes you wonder what AT&T has to hide. Why lie?

OAN News’ favorable treatment of Trump while covering his rallies gained them an ally that would see their popularity grow steadily over the next six years. Increasing its audience and market share drastically leading up to the 2020 election, and astronomically after.

While most media outlets on the right, namely FOX News, pushed The Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, OAN went all in with its support of Trump and as a result saw its app downloads increase 9-fold. Considering AT&T’s pledge to cut off funding and support to those in congress who helped fuel the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021 and those who voted not to certify Joe Biden, they remained radio silent when it came to OAN and their pushing of both misinformation and outright lies on their network. Instead, they used customer dollars to finance the subverting of democracy on their platform.

There is money in backing Trump and fueling the delusional accusations of him and his followers that he won the election. And after five years of languishing in the background, OAN was now being praised by Trump publicly, supported and retweeted by Trump before he lost his main social media account. OAN was finally getting the legitimacy it craved, even if based on a lie. When Trump accused FOX of not being square in his corner and their viewership dropped, OAN News was waiting in the wings to pick it up.

AT&T owned CNN started to see its ratings fall during this time frame. Trump had waged war on the network and its journalists. Dubbing them ‘fake news’ at every opportunity. CNN and the term became synonymous in the hearts and minds of MAGA. But those of us where were previous fans of the network, started to notice a change. More and more coverage of Trump and GOP guests frequently showed up on the station. But not to dispel any lies or disinformation for which they were famous, but instead they were given free rein to say what they pleased, no matter how outlandish, with little to no pushback from the interviewer.

Many on the left have accused CNN of having a favorable right wing bias and being more concerned with the sensationalism and ratings that come with covering Trump, than democracy. That their constant coverage of his antics actually helped him win the 2016 election (and almost the one in 2020). That they do not, have not, given enough coverage, time and attention to stopping misinformation from the right and showing what positives were coming by way of legislation and policy from the left.

For not calling out and pushing back on the GOP or Trump supporting guests who gaslight, lie and spread misinformation to CNN’s audience. The question has been raised whether billionaire GOP donor Paul Singer had something to do with the change. Two years ago Singer’s hedge fund Elliott Holdings, acquired a $3.2B stake in AT&T. He was not shy about pressuring the company to divest from many of their subsidiary companies and streamline the business.

Trump applauded Singer and Elliott Holdings on becoming major shareholders in the telecom giant. Trump’s ongoing and relentless trolling of CNN, and accusations that they were ‘unfair’ to him and out to get him. He openly called for Singer to censor the network.

Now whether or not Singer was an influencing factor in CNN’s change in reporting tone, as well as OANN’s rise between 2019 and 2020 has yet to be proven. But given what we know about AT&T’s political leanings, support and contributions, it is quite possible that they were behind the shift all on their own.

After all, AT&T created OANN six years before Singer was involved with the company. And even after AT&T vowed to be more inclusive, work towards diversity, equity and social justice on a larger scale, to not financially back any politician promoting The Big Lie, they renewed their contract with OAN News just this year. Had they not done that OAN would have been insolvent and not been able to continue as a network. After nearly a year of pushing false election propaganda, supporting the Capitol riot and night after night spreading lies which I consider to be an attack on a free and fair election and democracy, AT&T decided it was ok with that and renewed their deal with the monster it created. Not only giving them funding, but the platform to continue to undermine and attack our system of government.

The creation of OAN isn’t the only way that AT&T has played a role in supporting anti-democratic entities. It has spent nearly a decade positioning itself as a power player in right wing political circles. Finally in 2019, due to pressure from investors, the company was forced to open the books and share corporate political contributions with $6.2M being spent on Texas lobbies. Two years prior almost $16M had been spent in Washington. CNBC’s Jim Cramer has said that AT&T is the ‘most Republican of any publicly traded company.

In addition to hiring former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen in 2018, paying him over $600K as an advisor, AT&T donated $1.1M to Republicans, hundreds of thousands of those working on behalf of Trump and $2M to Trump’s inauguration.

The company came under fire for the hiring of Cohen when it was discovered the same account he used to funnel hush money to Stormy Daniels is the account used to pay his six figure fee.

Despite claims to support LGBTQ rights, Black Lives Matter causes and social justice, over $2.7M was donated to 193 anti-LGBTQ politicians, $200K to anti-abortion politicians and donated $60K to help re-elect white supremacist Steve King to congress. They also supported outspoken anti-BLM and KKK sympathizer, former Senator Kelly Loeffler.

AT&T also reneged on their promise to invest $1B in infrastructure and create over 7,000 good paying jobs if the tax cut bill was passed. Yet instead they pocketed $3B, laid off 23,000 workers and rewarded the company’s CEO with $29M in compensation.

They insist they don’t use a single issue to decide where to donate corporate dollars, but it’s pretty clear where it’s not going. They claim to take into account: Environmental sustainability, human rights, diversity, equity and inclusion, economic empowerment of women and underrepresented segments of society. On their own website AT&T’s Core Policy states: Stand for Equality. Speak with your actions.

With their support of those aiding in the destruction of our democracy, and well known racists, white supremacists and anti-LGBTQ politicians I will say yes. You have spoken with your actions AT&T, and we hear you loud and clear.

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