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https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-oneamerica-att/

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As it lauded former President Donald Trump and spread his unfounded claims of election fraud, One America News Network saw its viewership jump. Reuters has uncovered how America’s telecom giant nurtured the news channel now at the center of a bitter national divide over politics and truth.

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One America News, the far-right network whose fortunes and viewership rose amid the triumph and tumult of the Trump administration, has flourished with support from a surprising source: AT&T Inc, the world's largest communications company.

A Reuters review of court records shows the role AT&T played in creating and funding OAN, a network that continues to spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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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.”

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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.”

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More at the link.  Long read but worth it.

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  • 3 months later...
Posted

I'll pour one out for them when/if they fold.  Probably look into a streaming or app model but the olds ain't got time for that, just give them their DirectTV remote

Posted

I mean, that's basically half of America's trailers, no?  

Posted
  On 1/15/2022 at 2:24 AM, TexasEd said:

I'll pour one out for them when/if they fold.  Probably look into a streaming or app model but the olds ain't got time for that, just give them their DirectTV remote

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Losing its biggest distributor could definitely put it on a death watch of sorts.  Kind of hard to sell advertising in that environment.

Flip side for them, they've got a bunch of recent journalism grads who are doing most of their shows, so they can't be too expensive.

Posted

https://news.trust.org/item/20220115163735-pzh6l

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The announcement by DirecTV, which is 70% owned by AT&T, comes three months after a Reuters investigation revealed that OAN's founder testified that AT&T inspired him to create the network. Court testimony also showed that OAN receives nearly all of its revenue from DirecTV.

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DirecTV, with approximately 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.....

During a 2020 court proceeding, a transcript shows, an OAN lawyer told the court, "If Herring Networks, for instance, was to lose or not be renewed on DirecTV, the company would go out of business tomorrow."

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Ice Hockey GIF by NHL

 

Posted (edited)

LOL worthy.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/01/oan-panics-as-directv-drops-network-asks-viewers-to-find-dirt-on-att-chairman/

 

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One America News is in panic mode after DirecTV decided to drop the right-wing network from its channel lineup.

OAN host Dan Ball on Monday night urged viewers to dig up "dirt" on AT&T Board Chairman William Kennard, a Democrat who was Federal Communications Commission chairman during the Clinton administration and US Ambassador to the European Union under Obama. (AT&T is DirecTV's majority owner.)

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A Daily Beast article said Ball told viewers that OAN "is now at war with AT&T." The Daily Beast article continued:

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Airing a graphic that featured AT&T's customer support number and a picture of AT&T chairman William Kennard, Ball noted that Kennard had "connections to the Obamas and Clintons for decades."...

"If you have any dirt on Mr. Kennard, I'd love to see it and put it on this program," the Real America host exclaimed.

"You bring me concrete evidence of whatever it may be: cheating on his taxes, cheating on his wife, saying racial slurs against white people," Ball added, unsubtly referencing the fact that Kennard is Black. "Whatever it may be. Find it for me. Bring it, and we will air it."

He wrapped his plea by saying, "Everybody's got dirty little sins and secrets they're hiding" and that Kennard "deserves to have his exposed" over DirecTV deciding to cut ties with One America News.

 

oan-kennard.jpg

 

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"Call AT&T's support line. Complain, raise hell, email, phone call daily, every hour, set the alarm on your phone, blow the phone lines up, demand they keep OAN—this is censorship at its best," Ball also said. He accused Kennard of "doing nothing but a political maneuver by pressuring DirecTV... to take us off the air."

Kennard became AT&T's board chairman in January 2021.

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Edited by Francisco 2.0
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Posted
  On 1/20/2022 at 8:39 PM, Francisco 2.0 said:

LOL worthy.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/01/oan-panics-as-directv-drops-network-asks-viewers-to-find-dirt-on-att-chairman/

 

 

 

Airing a graphic that featured AT&T's customer support number and a picture of AT&T chairman William Kennard, Ball noted that Kennard had "connections to the Obamas and Clintons for decades."...

"If you have any dirt on Mr. Kennard, I'd love to see it and put it on this program," the Real America host exclaimed.

"You bring me concrete evidence of whatever it may be: cheating on his taxes, cheating on his wife, saying racial slurs against white people," Ball added, unsubtly referencing the fact that Kennard is Black. "Whatever it may be. Find it for me. Bring it, and we will air it."

He wrapped his plea by saying, "Everybody's got dirty little sins and secrets they're hiding" and that Kennard "deserves to have his exposed" over DirecTV deciding to cut ties with One America News.

 

oan-kennard.jpg

 

 

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Have fun on hold motherfuckers. 

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Posted

It would kind of rule if they actually dug up some real dirt on him. That would serve him right for helping create the channel in the first place to try and undercut Fox News' carriage fees.

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Posted
  On 1/20/2022 at 8:53 PM, wildcat09 said:

It would kind of rule if they actually dug up some real dirt on him. That would serve him right for helping create the channel in the first place to try and undercut Fox News' carriage fees.

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He wasn't chairman when OAN was created, or even employed by ATT. He was the ambassador to the EU during this time with the Obama administration.

He became chairman of ATT  in January 2021.

 

 

Posted
  On 1/20/2022 at 9:06 PM, Francisco 2.0 said:

He wasn't chairman when OAN was created, or even employed by ATT. He was the ambassador to the EU during this time with the Obama administration.

He became chairman of ATT  in January 2021.

 

 

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They don't give a fuck. It's about keeping their shitty show on the air. 

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Posted
  On 1/21/2022 at 5:15 PM, Beau Vine said:

Call AT&T Customer Support?

That's fucking funny.

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No shit. They were an absolute nightmare to deal with and that was for my business lines. Cannot even imagine what they’re like on the consumer side. Zero fucks are being given. 

Posted
  On 1/20/2022 at 8:39 PM, Francisco 2.0 said:

"Call AT&T's support line. Complain, raise hell, email, phone call daily, every hour, set the alarm on your phone, blow the phone lines up, demand they keep OAN—this is censorship at its best," Ball also said.

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"censorship at its best" LULZ.

Shame that Ball and the others don't like the whole free market thing.

Posted

One of the best days of my life was the one on which I finally told at&t to get fucked.  Over priced, poor service, and practically impossible to ever talk to anyone about a problem.

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  • 1 month later...
Posted

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/03/oan-sues-att-says-being-kicked-off-directv-may-force-it-to-shut-down/

 

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One America News might have to shut down because of DirecTV's decision to drop the right-wing network from its channel lineup, OAN said in a lawsuit against DirecTV and its owner AT&T.

DirecTV recently said it will drop OAN after their carriage contract expires in early April. DirecTV will also drop AWE (A Wealth of Entertainment), as OAN and AWE are both owned by Herring Networks. In a lawsuit filed on March 7 and reported by the Daily Beast on Friday, Herring Networks alleged that breach of contract and other violations were committed by AT&T, DirecTV, and AT&T Board Chairman William Kennard.

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"As a result of the conduct of AT&T, AT&T Services, DirecTV, and Kennard, OAN and AWE might be forced off the air because Herring will no longer be able to broadcast OAN and AWE via DirecTV and Herring presently has limited alternative carriage options," the lawsuit said. The nonrenewal "will result in damage to Herring exceeding $1 billion" if it isn't reversed, the lawsuit said. The complaint was filed in California Superior Court in San Diego County and seeks both injunctive relief and financial damages.

"This is an action to redress the unchecked influence and power that Defendants have wielded in an attempt to unlawfully destroy an independent, family-run business and impede the right of American television viewers to watch the news media channels and programs of their choice," Herring Networks alleged.

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Posted
  On 3/16/2022 at 6:58 PM, Francisco 2.0 said:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/03/oan-sues-att-says-being-kicked-off-directv-may-force-it-to-shut-down/

 

 

 

 

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All of which comes back to an argument of the phantom legal argument that AT&T actually has some sort of obligation to.....ENTER INTO a new contract with OAN.  Not that AT&T has to perform a contract that it is in (that's the existing law on how contracts work), but rather.....AT&T is somehow legally obligated, and should be subject to a court order ORDERING it, to enter into a new agreement with OAN.

This -- like everything that comes out of this political movement -- is batshit crazy.

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Posted (edited)

Let's pour one out for OAN.    

(Who am I kidding.  Let's celebrate ATT doing the right damned thing for once).

 

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/04/directv-dropped-oan-today-rejecting-gop-pleas-to-keep-right-wing-network/

 

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One America News has officially been removed from DirecTV, as the TV provider resisted pressure from Republicans to keep the right-wing network in its channel lineup. A DirecTV spokesperson confirmed to Ars today that the channel removal went ahead as scheduled.

OAN's future is in doubt as the network's owner has said losing the DirecTV deal might force it to shut down. DirecTV previously issued a notice to users stating that OAN would leave DirecTV's satellite channel lineup and the online service DirecTV Stream after April 4. The removal also affected A Wealth of Entertainment (AWE), another channel owned by OAN parent company Herring Networks.

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DirecTV announced it wouldn't renew its carriage deal with OAN after pressure from advocacy groups that pointed out OAN "is a major supporter of the Stop the Steal movement," spread "election fraud lies that claimed the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump," "stok[ed] violent calls for the attack on the US Capitol," and airs "wall-to-wall COVID-19 disinformation." US Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) had also questioned DirecTV owner AT&T and other TV providers about why they carry OAN, Newsmax, and Fox News.

DirecTV has since expanded its deal with Fox by offering Fox Nation streaming as a premium add-on. When asked whether it will keep Newsmax, DirecTV told Ars, "As we do for every network in our lineup, we'll evaluate and make decisions as we approach each contract's expiration." The DirecTV spokesperson also said, "I'm not at liberty to provide the expiration date of the contract [with Newsmax]."

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Posted (edited)
  On 4/11/2022 at 4:16 AM, WhatTheBuck said:

Some good stuff on OAN in John Oliver’s opening segment tonight. The whole episode was solid.

Delete your cookies regularly.

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Obligatory plug for JavaScript blockers like NoScript and Ghostery. Setting up a Pi-Hole on your local network to black hole advertising and tracking domains is a great step and some of the metrics are eye opening.

It's unfortunate because on the one hand, the internet (and my career) doesn't exist without the money from internet advertising - but we need a GDPR-like protection mechanism here in the US. And I KNOW that every enterprise/website that might have traffic from Europe already has compliance mechanisms built, so there's no real technical blocker. Just a business and policy blocker.

Really good points in the LWT segment on how it's being used to tapdance on the grave of the 4th amendment.

Edited by Captainant
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Posted (edited)
  On 4/11/2022 at 12:15 PM, hpslugga said:

That ending was fucking epic.

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That video isn’t showing up for me now. Is it showing up for you? It did when I first posted it. (The same thing happened recently with another video I posted.) Let me try it again.

Like before, I can see it and play it. But I can’t see it in my post from last night. 

Edited by WhatTheBuck
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Posted
  On 4/11/2022 at 12:35 PM, WhatTheBuck said:

That video isn’t showing up for me now. Is it showing up for you? It did when I first posted it. (The same thing happened recently with another video I posted.) Let me try it again.

 

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Well I was only referring to the data brokers segment:

 

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Posted
  On 4/11/2022 at 12:29 PM, Captainant said:

Obligatory plug for JavaScript blockers like NoScript and Ghostery. Setting up a Pi-Hole on your local network to black hole advertising and tracking domains is a great step and some of the metrics are eye opening.

It's unfortunate because on the one hand, the internet (and my career) doesn't exist without the money from internet advertising - but we need a GDPR-like protection mechanism here in the US. And I KNOW that every enterprise/website that might have traffic from Europe already has compliance mechanisms built, so there's no real technical blocker. Just a business and policy blocker.

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A properly setup and maintained pi-hole is great and whatnot, but I switched to Next DNS a few years ago and have never looked back.  No hardware (or virtual) to babysit, etc.  It's $20 a year if you have over 300,000 dns lookups a month.  Netflix's Director of Engineering is one of the persons behind this:

https://nextdns.io/

 

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Posted (edited)
  On 4/11/2022 at 1:15 PM, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

A properly setup and maintained pi-hole is great and whatnot, but I switched to Next DNS a few years ago and have never looked back.  No hardware (or virtual) to babysit, etc.  It's $20 a year if you have over 300,000 dns lookups a month.  Netflix's Director of Engineering is one of the persons behind this:

https://nextdns.io/

 

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Hmmm I may need to look into that... Although now that I have my NAS running 24/7 with a UPS I may just move the Pi-Hole to a container running on the NAS alongside the rest of my Plex setup

Another personal recommendation is something like AdGuard if you're on Android. It's a paid service but a while back I got a family pack of lifetime licenses for $50 so it's what I use. It handles everything on a system level and runs a local VPN and updates local routing so that it's the single network egress and it does the filtering for all network traffic, including HTTPS filtering and DNS encryption

Edited by Captainant
Posted
  On 4/11/2022 at 1:15 PM, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

A properly setup and maintained pi-hole is great and whatnot, but I switched to Next DNS a few years ago and have never looked back.  No hardware (or virtual) to babysit, etc.  It's $20 a year if you have over 300,000 dns lookups a month.  Netflix's Director of Engineering is one of the persons behind this:

https://nextdns.io/

 

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Thanks for the rec, I'm going to look into this.  My kids are just coming into internet age and I have not prepared enough for what is coming.  It looks like this might even address kid's phones - correct?  i.e. disconnecting from wifi and using cellular won't get around this?

Posted
  On 4/11/2022 at 2:17 PM, The Royal We said:

Thanks for the rec, I'm going to look into this.  My kids are just coming into internet age and I have not prepared enough for what is coming.  It looks like this might even address kid's phones - correct?  i.e. disconnecting from wifi and using cellular won't get around this?

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In theory, sure.  You install the Next DNS app on their phone, configure it, and off you go.  However, kids being kids....if you are counting on an easily installed (and uninstalled) third party app that forces all their network traffic through Next DNS, then you might as well not bother.

 

 

 

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  • 5 months later...
Posted

Bryan Cranston Reaction GIF

This is going to reach some old relatives of mine.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/one-america-news-plots-a-comeback-that-includes-tv-antenna-users?sref=P6Q0mxvj

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After being dropped by two major pay-TV distributors this year, One America News is attempting a comeback by leveraging an old technology: the antenna.

The conservative channel, which has been accused of spreading misinformation about the 2020 election and praised by former President Donald Trump, lost millions of homes when DirecTV and Verizon Communications Inc. stopped carrying it.

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To replace them, OAN is signing up partners to broadcast on so-called “subchannels.” OAN airs on free, over-the-air channels in about 30 markets and plans to be in about 100 by the end of this year, according to a person familiar with the company’s strategy who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The markets include Pittsburgh; Las Vegas; Wichita, Kansas; Jacksonville, Florida; and Birmingham, Alabama. 

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Subchannels, which are sometimes called “multicasts” or “diginets,” are a little-noticed corner of the TV business. But they’ve been growing as more people cancel cable-TV and use antennas to supplement their Netflix binges with free broadcast stations. About 15% of US households use antennas, up from 10% in 2010, according to Nielsen.

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