One America News Network

One America News Network, also abbreviated as OANN or OAN News, is a far-right, pro-Trump, ultraconservative propaganda media outlet founded by Robert Herring Sr., the founder and owner of 
The idea behind OANN came directly from AT&T executives who wanted a second right-wing network to compete with Fox News.How AT&T helped build far-right One America News by John Shiffman (Oct. 6, 2021, 11 a.m. GMT) Reuters. Ninety percent of OANN's revenue stream comes from AT&T-owned television platforms, especially DirecTV. OANN's lawyer, Patrick Nellies, stated in court, "If Herring Networks, for instance, was to lose or not be renewed on DirecTV, the company would go out of business tomorrow."
OANN is like Fox News but more unhinged: on-air personalities have flirted with the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and the network even used QAnon emojis in one of their promotions."As OAN pitches to new carriers, one of its top personalities pushes conspiracy theories with Alex Jones" by Bobby Lewis, Media Matters for America, 2022 February 11"Trump's favorite news network appears to offer QAnon-themed emojis with a YouTube Live subscription" by Rachel E. Greenspan, Business Insider, 2020 September 23 Conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, best known for pushing Pizzagate, was a reporter at OANN from 2018 to 2021."Notorious Pizzagater Jack Posobiec Leaves OAN for Conservative Youth Group Turning Point USA" by Justin Baragona, Daily Beast, 2021 May 20 In July 2019, one of OANN's reporters, Kristian Rouz, was reported to be simultaneously working for the Russian state propaganda outlet Sputnik. They proudly proclaim that they know the difference between an apple and a banana.OAN - This is an apple. YouTube, 27 October 2017.
OANN was launched on July 4, 2013 and "provides an independent source of credible national and international news around the clock." They are a redundantly self-proclaimed "dependable and reliable source of credible news reporting."http://www.oann.com/one-america-news-network-wealth-entertainment-launching-directv-directv-now/ OANN says that it delivers "just the facts, empowering you to form your own beliefs" and has been praised for their reporting on current events.https://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/my-new-favorite-news-netw_b_6419182.html However, they fail with political news, promoting extreme conservative causes and engaging in constant liberal and left-wing smearing and bashing to draw a more far-right conservative audience.
Media Bias/Fact Check says that OANN has a strong right-wing bias and lists them as a questionable source due to their conspiracy pushing and their misleading stories.https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/one-america-news-network/
In a severe blow to the network that will test whether they can survive without AT&T, on January 14 2022, DirecTV announced that they would not be renewing their contract with OANN, which was due to expire in early April."DirecTV to sever ties with OAN and drop the right-wing conspiracy channel later this year" by Oliver Darcy and Brian Stelter, CNN Business, 2022 January 14 Naturally, OANN anchors responded to this news in their typical conspiratorial, unhinged style, framing the decision as "an extension of a purported communist plot to steal the 2020 presidential election" and begging viewers to find compromising "dirt" on AT&T board chairman (including a racist plea asking viewers to find evidence that Kennard, who is Black, said "racial slurs against white people")."OAN panics as DirecTV drops network, asks viewers to find “dirt” on AT&T chairman" by Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica, 2022 January 20
In July 2022, media giant Verizon announced that it was dropping OANN from its cable television lineup, reducing the network's reach to a tiny presence and calling in doubt its long term viability.Jeremy W. Peters and Benjamin Mullin, OAN, a Dependable Trump Promoter, Faces a ‘Death Blow’. Archived from The New York Times, 26 July 2022. The dramatic loss of 20 million cable subscribers came at a time when the network is facing ongoing litigation over charges that they spread fake news about the 2020 United States presidential election.Justin Baragona, MAGA Cable Channel OAN Could Become Impossible to Find on TV. Vanity Fair, 21 July 2022.
==Misinformation and propaganda==
===Russian influence===
Over time, One America News Network has become overtly supportive of Russia's global agenda. Kristian Brunovich Rouz, a Russian national and employee of the Russian government owned Sputnik News propaganda network, is an on-air reporter for One America News Network. His reports include fabricated smear jobs on Hillary Clinton and George Soros, and they occasionally sneak in Kremlin propaganda. None of Rouz's news segments include the disclosure that he works for Russia’s state-owned media.
In March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, OANN's Pearson Sharp ran a conspiratorial story on the declaring (without evidence) that this was a United States-led "false flag" operation, and (despite numerous photographs from Associated Press reporters showing otherwise) claiming that the hospital had "no patients inside".Pearson Sharp: 'The Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, had “the makings of yet another false flag operation” led by the U.S.', Politifact, 2022 March 11 This is unsurprising bullshit from Sharp; in the same month, Sharp aired a segment (peppered with ad hominem attacks, conspiracy theories, a blatant lie regarding Ukraine and NATO, fearmongering, and a shout out to Tucker Carlson) stating that Joe Biden instigated the Ukraine invasion."Did Biden Instigate The Russian War In Ukraine?", OAN Newsroom, 2022 March 11 Sharp is another reporter who was known to repeat Russian propaganda over his career at OANN."Trump’s New Favorite Network Embraces Russian Propaganda" by Kevin Poulsen, Daily Beast, 2019 May 4
===Cherry-picking===
On July 5, 2017, The Washington Post, citing more than a dozen current and former OANN staff members, reported that Herring "directed his channel to push Trump's candidacy, scuttle stories about police shootings, encourage anti-abortion stories, minimize coverage of Russian aggression, and steer away from the new president's troubles". In addition, Herring banned stories using polls that didn't show Trump in the lead during his presidential campaign.
One anchorman told The Post that if they were liberal, they would still be hired, but you had to report conservative stories.
==Conspiracy theories==
Picture an sifting through fringe webshites like Infowars and Gateway Pundit, finding some bullshit conspiracy theory article, and rushing to OANN staffers demanding that these stories be aired. According to former OANN staff, this described a significant portion of OANN's story selection process."The Hell of Working at Trump’s New Favorite Network" by Kevin Poulsen, Daily Beast, 2019 May 18 Small wonder then that OANN has broadcast many batshit insane conspiracy theories as "news" over the years.
===Lies about U.K. crime later spread by Trump===
In the morning of October 20, 2017, A segment on OANN had a chyron reading, "Report: U.K. Crime Rises 13% Annually Amid Spread Of Radical Islamic Terror."https://www.mediamatters.org/embed/clips/2017/10/20/56579/oan-20171020-crimeuk A few minutes later, this falsity was repeated by Donald Trump in a tweet saying:
 
This tweet caused outrage with British officials.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/20/trump-mistakenly-links-uk-rise-with-spread-of-islamic-terror
Media Matters for America traced Trump's tweet to OANN's early morning segmenthttps://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/10/20/trump-tweet-about-uk-crime-and-muslims-mirrors-segment-conspiracy-mongering-network-oann/218281 and Snopes debunked Trump's and OANN's claim. They noted that "The number of arrests relating to 'international terrorism' and the number of terror-related homicides and attempted murder offenses increased in the year ending June 2017; crime as a whole increased by 13 percent." They also noted that these statistics came from the UK's Office of National Statistics' June 2017 Crime Survey of England and Wales, not the UK in general. In addition, the Office of National Statistics included statistics on offenses recorded in a 12-month period and said, "The 13% increase in police recorded crime from the previous year reflects a range of factors including continuing improvements to crime recording and genuine increases in some crime categories, especially in those that are well-recorded."https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-uk-terrorism/
===Smearing Roy Moore's opponents===
During the 2017 Alabama Senate race, OANN wanted Roy Moore to win desperately. That includes pushing conspiracy theories against his opponents. On November 10, The Gateway Pundit started to spread rumors that The Washington Post offered $1000 to a woman so she could lie about being sexually abused by Moore. Their reference was from a Twitter account named @umpire43 and his supposed real name, Doug Lewis, who they say is a Navy veteran who served for the Secret Service. OANN was one of the many that fell for The Gateway Pundit's bait.https://www.mediamatters.org/embed/clips/2017/11/14/56984/oann-oan-20171111-moorewapobribetweet It turned out that "Doug Lewis" was a real military veteran named Jason D. Jones that died in 2007 and that the person running @umpire43 was a fraudulent account that was deleted on November 13. Afterwards, The Gateway Pundit's article carried a disclaimer saying, "UPDATE: We have not been able to confirm these allegations by Doug Lewis."https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/did-washington-post-offer-accuse-roy-moore/https://www.thedailybeast.com/troll-smearing-roy-moores-accuser-stole-dead-seals-identity
Despite this, OANN's attempts to normalize Moore and attack his opponent weren't over. On November 27, 2017, OANN used an article from Breitbart to smear against a victim of Moore for her "violent past". The next day, after playing a commercial praising Moore and calling his sexual allegations false and "a scheme by liberal elites and the Republican establishment", OANN host of The Daily Ledger, Graham Ledger called Moore's political opponent, Doug Jones, a "real fascist left radical" and "on a constitutional level" cannot be elected.https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/11/29/6-oann-s-most-bizarre-and-desperate-attempts-elect-roy-moore-alabama/218677
On election night, OANN didn't let facts get in the way of its coverage. In a Dewey Defeats Truman moment, they announced that Moore won the election "by a large margin" and posted an article on its web site saying the same thing, despite the fact that Moore lost.Rachel Leah, Watch a pro-Trump network call the Alabama election for Moore, "by a large margin". Salon, 17 December 2017.
===Syria chemical attack===
April 16, 2018, OANN's Pearson Sharp, claimed that he found "no evidence" for the chemical attacks in Syria.http://www.oann.com/oan-investigation-finds-no-evidence-of-chemical-weapon-attack-in-syria/https://thinkprogress.org/far-right-website-no-evidence-of-a-chemical-attack-in-syria-affdfd59ded7/ This has attracted some of OANN's pro-Assad, Russian fanboys.https://thinkprogress.org/far-right-american-outlet-finds-support-in-russia-61b8a0c0cf3a/
===False Bible ban in California===
April 19, Liz Wheeler interviewed California State Assembly member, to talk about California's Assembly Bill 2943. Wheeler and Allen said that the bill's intent was to ban the sale of Bibles.
Wheeler posted this clip on Facebook and it managed to get 5.4 million views, 6.2 thousand likes, and 162 thousand shares.https://www.facebook.com/TippingPointonOAN/videos/1007453919406985/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDY2MDUyMzc1NToxOTI5NjYyNzEzNzMyMzk0/
However, what Wheeler and Allen said during that segment about California's A.B 2943 was greatly misrepresented. The bill was proposed to enhance prohibition of (SOCE) in California. The bill does not mention anything about the Bible. The thing that got the religious right angry was that the bill would apply to services whose purpose was to encourage SOCE to LGBT people.http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-gay-conversion-therapy-services-would-1524162085-htmlstory.html Many thought that this included Bibles. An attorney and policy advisor from Sacramento told Snopes that the bill would prohibit conversion therapy "as a commercial service in exchange for monetary compensation" and "It does not apply to the sale of books or any other kind of goods, and it does not prevent anyone from speaking or writing on the subject of conversion therapy in any forum."https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/california-bible-ban/ 
This misrepresenation was spread throughout the internet, thanks to bad journalism. For example, this one, this one, and this one.
===Endorsing South African 'white genocide' conspiracy===
OANN also endorses the South African genocide conspiracy,https://www.oann.com/watch-u-k-u-s-remain-silent-on-south-africas-white-genocide/ and during Obama's visit to South Africa in July 2018, OANN claimed that he was supporting it.http://www.oann.com/watch-obama-praises-south-africas-white-genocide-government/
===Supporting Giuliani's Ukraine conspiracy theories===
In December 2019, OANN devoted three hours to Donald Trump's prime ratfucker Rudy Giuliani, so he could advertise various conspiracy theories related to Joe Biden and Ukraine. The network faced widespread condemnation for this stunt by completely integrating Giuliani's bullshit into their own reporting work.Michael Calderone, ‘Stunning piece of propaganda’: Journalists blast One America News series. Politico, 19 December 2019.Sean Collins, Giuliani returns from Ukraine with new, very questionable “evidence” that the Bidens committed “multiple crimes” vox.com, 16 December 2019.
===Buffalo police shoving incident conspiracy theories===
In early June 2020, OANN's reporting on the included the conspiracy theory that the protester who was pushed to the ground in this incident (75 year old Martin Gugino) was actually involved in an antifa plot."The frequent overlap between Trump’s conspiracy theories and Russian propaganda" by Aaron Blake, Washington Post, 2020 June 9"Meet the Propagandists and Conspiracy Theorists Behind the One America News Network" by Ali Breland, Mother Jones, 2020 June 9
===COVID-19===
OAN's chief White House correspondent in 2020, Chanel Rion, pushed the conspiracy theory on the network that COVID-19 was created in a North Carolina laboratory."Pro-Trump OAN pushes wild conspiracy theory that novel coronavirus was created in a North Carolina lab" by John Whitehouse, Media Matters, 2020 March 18 To support this opinion (which completely contradicts the expert opinion), she cited "Greg Rubini", a QAnon supporting Twitter account who claims to have sources inside the US government up in high places, and tweeted a long thread alleging that COVID-19 was a "GENETICALLY ENGINEERED" "DEEP STATE plot to destroy the Trump economy", and that " (NIH) funded the production of the Corona Virus at the North Carolina BSL-3 lab". ( later discovered that "Greg Rubini" was a 61-year old sound engineer named Gregorio Palusa, who lived not in the United States, but in Trieste, Italy."A Popular QAnon Twitter Account That Claims To Have Explosive DC Dirt Is Really Just A Random Italian Guy" by Craig Silverman and Alberto Nardelli, Buzzfeed News, 2020 June 4)
Media Matters' Matthew Gertz tweeted on May 9, 2020 that OANN ran a segment stating that there was "'mounting evidence of a globalist conspiracy' by the Clintons, Soros, Gates, , & Chinese gov't to use coronavirus 'to establish sweeping population control' by backing remdesvir over hydroxychlorquine". According to Gertz, OANN also cited the widely debunked YouTube bullshit documentary Plandemic in the process."YIKES! OAN ran a segment last night on "mounting evidence of a globalist conspiracy" by the Clintons, Soros, Gates, Fauci, & Chinese gov't to use coronavirus "to establish sweeping population control" by backing remdesvir over hydroxychlorquine. It cites Plandemic's Mikovits!", @MattGertz, Twitter, 2020 May 9, archived on 2020 Dec 8
In late November 2020, YouTube temporarily suspended and demonetized OANN for uploading a video promoting a phony cure for COVID-19."YouTube temporarily suspends, demonetizes OANN" by Ashley Gold, Axios, 2020 November 24
Additionally, they have started promoting ivermectin as a cure for COVID-19.U.S Govt Research Finds African Countries Using Ivermectin Have Much Lower Rates Of COVID Mortality, OANN 15 September 2021 They will also occasionally refer to it as the "China Virus".China Virus ‘Breakthrough’ Cases Surge Globally As Concerns Mount Over Ineffective Vaccines, OANN 12 August 2021
===2020 United States election conspiracies===
After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election over Donald Trump, OANN sought to pickup disaffected conservative viewers, who were upset that outlets such as Fox News actually reported Biden as the winner, and were not repeating the baseless lies and misinformation Trump was pushing on his Twitter feed (suggesting that, reality notwithstanding, Trump had actually won.) As a result, OANN began repeating many of these bullshit conspiracy theories being pushed by Trump and his online fans. Among them was a conspiracy theory (most notably promoted by Louie Gohmert) that the "real" results of the election were routed to a server in Frankfurt, Germany. US Army forces supposedly raided the software company where the server was, and the results stored on the server supposedly showed that Trump won in a landslide (bizarrely winning even California, a state no Republican presidential candidate has won since 1992, and with a bigger margin than Indiana, a state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 2008, and before that, 1964). (All of these events only took place in the imagination of certain over-fanatical Trump supporters.)"Fact check: Map showing Trump landslide based on false report of seized election servers in Germany" by Camille Caldera, USA Today, 2020 November 18"Fact check: Story of Army raid to seize election servers in Germany is false" by Camille Caldera, USA Today, 2020 November 17 OANN also reported another claim (made without any evidence) that voting machines made by Dominion "deleted" votes (but only votes for Trump in states Trump lost, of course).Claim: "Dominion Voting Systems “deleted 2.7 million Trump votes nationwide.”", by Daniel Funke and Samantha Putterman, Politifact / The Poynter Institute, 2020 November 12
On 5 February 2021, OANN ran a "documentary" called Absolute Proof, produced by cushion manufacturer and election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell."OAN to air three-hour movie from MyPillow CEO" by Cameron Jenkins, Hill, 2021 February 5 Under the threat of lawsuits by the companies slandered by their earlier "reporting," they ran an incredible disclaimer prior to the airing of Lindell's three hour screed.Matthew Gertz, OAN is airing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's documentary about how the election was stolen for twelve consecutive hours today. Here's the disclaimer at the top indicating that it is paid programming, "opinion only," and OAN doesn't endorse statements re: Dominion/Smartmatic. Archived from the original on Twitter, 5 February 2021. OANN appeared to have run the Lindell pseudo-documentary as a paid advertisement, but it seems unlikely that this will save the network from being sued by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic.David Corn, Dominion Voting Lawyer Suggests OAN May Be Next for a Mega-Lawsuit (And the MyPillow Guy, too.) Mother Jones, 5 February 2021.
OANN correspondent Christina Bobb is not only reporting on the controversial Maricopa County, Arizona recount of the 2020 election results, but she is helping to pay for it, a clear violation of journalism ethics.One America News is the face of the Arizona election audit. Its reporter is also helping pay for it. by Paul Farhi & Elahe Izadi (June 18, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. PDT) The Washington Post.
In a news segment that excited the most bloodthirsty within the QAnon crowd (and led others to comment on the fascist undertone of the network), OANN's Pearson Sharp aired a segment where he called for execution for "traitors who meddled with our sacred democratic process and tried to steal power by taking away the voices of the American people"."OAN host suggests mass "execution" of those who oppose Trump's voter fraud claims" by Zachary Petrizzo, Salon, 2021 June 24 (Of course, he was referring to fanciful "radical Democrats" that supposedly tampered the vote so that Joe Biden could win the 2020 election, instead of the actual pro-Trump insurrectionists who tried to meddle with the democratic process on January 6 2021.)
On August 10 2021, Dominion Voting Systems filed a lawsuit claiming that OANN (along with Newsmax and Patrick M. Byrne) defamed the company, seeking 1.6 billion dollars in damages."Dominion sues Newsmax, One America over U.S. election fraud claims" by Jan Wolfe and Tom Hals, Reuters, 2021 August 10
In 2024, voting system developer Smartmatic alleged that OANN executives may have broken data privacy laws by sharing a spreadsheet purporting to contain the passwords of Smartmatic employees with Sidney Powell, one of Trump's deranged lawyers, in January 2021.Marshall Cohen, Pro-Trump network OAN execs may have ‘engaged in criminal activities’ while promoting 2020 election lies, Smartmatic alleges. CNN, 29 January 2024.
==Nutty guests==
===Sarah Palin===
From August 24 to August 28, 2015, Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate, was a guest host for On Point at OANN. That week, she interviewed Donald Trump,'On Point' with Gov. Sarah Palin & Donald Trump. One America News Network on YouTube, 28 August 2015. Ted Cruz'On Point' with Gov. Sarah Palin & Sen. Ted Cruz. One America News Network on YouTube, 28 August 2015. and Cubic Zirconium and Polyester Diamond & Silk (Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson).Diamond and Silk Broke About a Million Laws Thursday in Congress, and They Might Need a Lawyer by Jason Johnson (4/27/18 7:00pm) The Root.On Point With Sarah Palin, The Stump For Trump Sisters, 8/25/15. One America News Network on YouTube, 11 May 2016. Palin, with Breitbart's Kevin Scholla, reacted to ESPN after they suspended Curt Schilling from commenting duties after posting a picture of Hitler and two lines saying, "It's said that only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How'd that go?".Jon Greenberg, Schilling throws wild pitch with Nazi stat. Politifact, 28 Aug 2015. Of course, with Scholla being a person from Breitbart and Palin being herself, instead of going with the more rational and far more reasonable answer of avoiding controversy, they decided to go with the bizarre claim that ESPN is "pushing a far-left liberal agenda" and "swallowing ISIS propaganda".On Point With Sarah Palin, ESPN's Leftist Agenda, 8/28/15. One America News Network on YouTube, 28 August 2015. Robert Herring's son, Chris Herring praised Palin's segments for that week and OANN would love to have Palin back as a guest host.Brian Stetler, Sarah Palin was 'tremendous' as host on Fox News challenger, boss says. CNN Business, 31 August 2015.
==See also==
*Fox News
*Ben Shapiro
*Sarah Palin 
*Tomi Lahren
*The Gateway Pundit
*Fake News
==External links==
*One America News Network's website
*Their Youtube channel
==Notes==
==References==
Category:2020 election denialists
Category:Alternative medicine promoters
Category:American media
Category:Broadcasting
Category:Christian apologists
Category:Conservative deceit
Category:Conspiracy theorists
Category:COVID-19 denialists
Category:Crank magnetism
Category:Denialist organizations
Category:Fake news
Category:Global warming denialists
Category:Islamophobia
Category:Media
Category:Propaganda
Category:Pseudoscience promoting organizations
Category:Racism
Category:Shysters
Category:Trumpism
Category:Vatniks