One America News will not go quietly.
Three days after it was revealed DirecTV would drop the far-right network facing multiple defamation lawsuits from its channel offerings, the San Diego-based outlet Monday began making public appeals — with a host saying OAN was “now at war with AT&T.”
“Call AT&T & DirecTV Today — Cancel Culture In News Is Unacceptable!” said a headline on OAN’s website.
“Don’t let woke executives shut down OAN!” said the posting, echoing language made Saturday by Donald Trump at his “Save America” rally in Florence, Arizona. “Join the movement and stand up for freedom of the press!”
Reuters reported that the decision by America’s largest satellite provider to drop OAN could financially cripple theTV network known for fueling conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
DirecTV, with about 15 million subscribers, is by far OAN’s largest carrier. According to testimony by OAN’s accountant reviewed by Reuters, DirecTV provided 90% of the conservative network’s revenue.
“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,” DirecTV said in a statement.
A video showing Trump’s remarks about OAN accompanied the posting (and on social media) — the first time the network formally acknowledged the DirecTV action.
Herring Networks, parent of OAN, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday’s postings. Neither has AT&T nor DirecTV.
On Monday, reports Media Matters for America, OAN host Dan Ball displayed a photo of the chairman of AT&T’s board on the screen and told viewers to call the customer support line to “complain” and “raise hell,” and that they should do so “daily, every hour” to “demand they keep OAN.”
Said Ball: “If you’ve got any dirt” on AT&T’s board chairman, “I’d love to see it and put it on this program. You bring me concrete evidence of whatever it may be – cheating on his taxes, cheating on his wife, saying racial slurs towards white people, folks do that – whatever it may be, find it for me, bring it, and we’ll air it.”
Ball also was quoted as saying: “One America News Network is now at war with AT&T, and it is time that we all fight and fight like hell with our words and our pocketbooks.”
On another OAN show Monday, Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington said DirecTV’s decision to drop OAN was an extension of a purported communist plot to steal the 2020 presidential election, Media Matters reported.
Earlier Monday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, tweeted that he had canceled DirecTV at his home, saying: “Why give money to people who hate us?”
Updated at 10:53 p.m. Jan. 18, 2022