One America News made a name for itself among right-wing media outlets in the wake of the 2020 election, spreading debunked claims of fraud and pro-Trump conspiracy theories to its conservative cable audience. But now, as its existing contract with DirecTV potentially expires soon and the network faces congressional calls for accountability and a potential lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, the channel’s prime-time programming demonstrates that there is no need to financially support its absurd bigotry and lies.
Founded in 2013, OAN didn’t get much attention until 2020, following several Twitter endorsements from then-President Donald Trump. After Fox News’ (correct) election night projection that President Joe Biden would win Arizona, some right-wing viewers -- including Trump himself -- turned to OAN, as well as its similar competitor Newsmax. (Although OAN doesn’t participate in Nielsen ratings, Newsmax has begun to see its ratings decline from post-election peaks.)
Media Matters reviewed OAN’s prime-time programming (which has featured a revolving door of personalities in recent years) from February 24 to March 24 and found a wide range of lies and hysteria, including targeting its media rivals for harassment, downplaying police brutality, dismissing transgender rights, lying that Trump actually won the “stolen” 2020 election, warning that “Judeo-Christian values” are under threat, defending Mr. Potato Head from the “woke mob,” and claiming Democrats are replacing white voters with undocumented immigrants.
While many of these sentiments echo other right-wing outlets, they are notable because the extremism and sheer delusions touted by OAN go above and beyond what Fox News typically allows on air. The network’s unique willingness to spread disinformation, violent transphobia, racism, harassment against media figures, and ignorant culture war bromides over this one-month period unequivocally shows that OAN is not, in any meaningful sense, a news organization -- but whether they want to or not, anyone with a TV provider like Verizon FiOS, DirecTV, CenturyLink, or GCI may be paying to support these belligerent lies through their cable subscriber fees.