OAN Will Be Stranded After Discarded by Verizon: It would appear that overtly racist, anti-scientific, Trump-supporting, and anti-democratic discourse is no longer tolerated during prime-time programming; but, there is at least one station that continues to allow it. Late on Thursday, Verizon Fios made the announcement that they will no longer carry One America News. The last major TV carrier for the beacon of media hate declared that discussions were “business as usual,” demonstrating that they are the epitome of gentlemanly behavior.
In a statement that was given to Gizmodo, Verizon stated that as of the 31st of July, OAN will no longer be available on the lineup for the network’s Fios TV service. On July 30th, the contract that we had with Herring Networks, the company that controls OAN, will come to an end.
“These conversations were centered on economics, as they always are; nonetheless, OAN failed to agree to reasonable conditions,” stated Verizon. Additionally, the company stated that they have “long advocated for providing customers with the ability to choose what content they want to watch,” and that “our Fios TV platform offers a wide and diverse choice of programming options, including a la carte options, that strive to meet our millions of customers’ various content needs and preferences.”
Reports indicate that the breakup, at least on OAN’s side, has not exactly been amicable despite Verizon’s best efforts to frame the issue as a matter of straightforward commercial competition. According to a report by Media Matters, the Organization for American Nationalists (OAN) had begun attacking Verizon, claiming that one of the largest telecom firms was “targeting OAN and other right-wing organizations.” Right-wing propaganda outlets such as Breitbart notably referenced Verizon’s website, which had a so-called “Guide to Misinformation” posted on it (an archived version of the guide may still be accessed), but Verizon has since removed the guide in response to these attacks from the far right.
This came after years of wrangling and OAN even suing the network to keep itself available back in 2017, and the telecom company was forced to continue airing One America News’ right-wing screeds as part of a settlement. Earlier this year, DirecTV announced that they were also dropping the channel, but that came after years of wrangling and OAN even suing the network to keep itself available. That is not to mention the fact that data from the prior year showed that practically the entire funding for One America News came from AT&T, the company that formerly controlled DirecTV.
OAN was never adopted by any of the other significant providers. Following their removal from DirectTV’s lineup, the news website NextTV said that OAN had fewer than 5 million paying TV subscribers left and that the company was barely bringing in $550,000 per month, the majority of which came from Verizon.
Other figures from the extreme right have joined Breitbart in supporting OAN’s viewpoint. In a letter sent to DirecTV in March, the Republican attorney generals of six different states pleaded, cajoled, and gently threatened the network to keep Trump’s TV lovechild. We’ll just have to sit tight and watch if Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his team will attempt to take legal action against Verizon.
A corporation that rose to prominence during the time that Donald Trump served as President is now in an even more disorganized state as a result of this most recent action. Back in April, The Daily Beast published an article stating that the network was rapidly losing talent. The network can only be accessed through a handful of obscure internet outlets such as KlowdTV. The next plan for OAN, according to an insider who requested anonymity but spoke with The Daily Beast, is to refocus on social media. While this is going on, another channel that is considered to be further to the right, Newsmax, is still broadcasting with Verizon.
