Satellite television provider DirecTV plans to decline renewing its contract with One America News (OAN) network, according to media reports and statements from groups that pushed for OAN to be dropped.
Bloomberg was
first to report the news. DirecTV and OAN did not respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.
OAN is one of three television networks favored by former President Donald Trump.
Left-wing organizations and politicians have long pushed AT&T, the majority owner of DirecTV, to drop OAN’s channels from the satellite provider’s lineup.
Media Matters for America, GLAAD (formerly known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), Greenpeace USA, and several other groups sent a letter to the CEOs of AT&T and DirecTV in November last year urging them to cut ties with OAN.
“We call on you to do the right thing and demand that DIRECTV take all available means to end its relationship with OANN, so that its customers are no longer forced to subsidize hate and disinformation,” the letter (
pdf) said.
The groups took issue with OAN’s coverage of election integrity and COVID-19, alleging that the news network promoted misinformation on both topics.
Chanel Rion, OAN’s chief White House correspondent, responded to the news on Twitter.
“With moves like this, DirectTV will have to become state-owned to survive,” Rion said. “In the age of streaming, Cable is on its dying breath—Blockbuster on the eve of Netflix. They would have better luck in Pyongyang.”
Liberal groups celebrated DirecTV’s decision.
“DirecTV made the responsible decision to drop OAN. OAN is a cauldron of misinformation and extremism," Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said in a
statement.
In March last year, OAN attorney Eric Early wrote to Reps. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) and Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.) demanding that they publicly retract their letters after the lawmakers
pressed 12 cable, satellite, and streaming companies to explain why they continue to offer their services to OAN, Fox News, and Newsmax.
“As government officials, you are interfering with the national cable news marketplace by dictating winners and losers. You are encouraging viewpoint discrimination designed to harm national media news voices that report unfavorably on your agendas and that may oppose you and your political beliefs,”
Early alleged in the letter. “You are effectively demanding that three center-to-right national media outlets be removed to suit your own political desires.”
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