The world’s largest communications company has been bankrolling a right-wing conspiracy network, an investigation by Reuters revealed.
The damning Reuters report, published Wednesday, shows that AT&T helped fund and create One America News ― a right-wing network famous for its fawning coverage of former President Donald Trump, and for spreading lies about the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost.
Without AT&T’s $250 million offering, OAN’s value “would be zero,” according to an accountant’s court testimony obtained by Reuters. More from the publication:
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.”