Telecoms have lengthy been accused of attempting to skew politics, however a brand new report suggests AT&T might need gone additional than most. According to The Verge, Reuters reports that AT&T is a serious backer for One America News Network (OAN), a right-wing media outlet YouTube briefly banned final November for spreading misinformation. While a number of TV suppliers carry the channel, an OAN accountant testified in 2020 that 90 % of OAN mother or father Herring Networks’ income, tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, got here by way of offers with AT&T-owned platforms that included DirecTV.

OAN founder Robert Herring individually testified that AT&T executives impressed him to launch the community in 2013 after a media panorama with comparatively few conservative retailers. Court paperwork additionally indicated that AT&T provided to purchase a 5 % fairness stake in OAN and Herring’s life-style channel AWE, though the 2 ended up selecting a unique settlement.

OAN even claimed that one AT&T government, Aaron Slator, provided to place the channel on DirecTV in return for assist lobbying for the satellite tv for pc broadcaster’s 2014 merger. The Herring household additionally supposedly met FCC officers to speak in regards to the merger and converse nicely of AT&T in information tales. AT&T has denied making the provide linked to Slator, and an OAN lawsuit alleging a breach of that deal supposedly led to AT&T including OAN to DirecTV’s choice.

AT&T rejected claims of undue affect in responses to Reuters and The Verge. The provider maintained that DirecTV “does not dictate” channel programming, and that DirecTV merger help was “never a condition of or part of” any content material carriage settlement. In a Twitter statement, AT&T maintained it “never had a financial interest” in OAN and that the choice to hold the community was now in DirecTV’s fingers.

The concern, as you may think, is that AT&T might have contributed to the unfold of misinformation with out being held to account like on-line suppliers and different corporations. On high of YouTube suspending OAN following a violation of COVID-19 misinformation guidelines, voting machine maker Dominion sued the network in August this yr over unproven claims of election fraud. If the report is correct, there may simply be strain on AT&T to distance itself from OAN and focus extra on its core providers than politics.