WASHINGTON, D.C.—Common Cause has commended Verizon for its decision to drop One America News Network from its channel line-up at the end of July.
The decision by DirecTV to drop OAN earlier this year and Verizon’s decision not to renew carriage, means that no major pay TV outlet will be carrying the conservative news network, which has been under fire for promoting false and misleading information about the COVID-19 pandemic, the results of the 2020 election, and the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
Conversative news organizations OAN, Fox News and Newsmax also face a billion-dollar libel lawsuit brought by the Dominion Voting Systems and OAN faces a separate libel suit from Smartmatic, another maker of voting machines.
Common Cause and a coalition of civil-rights, human-rights and media-justice organizations have pushed the major carriers to drop OANN since 2021. Last year, the coalition organized a letter to the CEOs of AT&T and DirecTV urging their companies to sever business ties with the network. After more than 170,000 people signed a petition calling on AT&T and DirectTV to cut all ties with OANN, DirecTV dropped the channel from its lineup.
“With the move by Verizon Fios, One America News Network will be left without a major carrier to spread its often harmful and dangerous disinformation and baseless conspiracy theories,” said Yosef Getachew, Common Cause Media and Democracy program director. “This is a welcome change but long overdue. OANN has spread lies that have hindered U.S. efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, undermined Americans’ faith in our elections, and fed the Big Lie narrative that led to a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. We hope those remaining small pay-tv providers and streaming services still carrying OANN will follow suit and deprive the outlet of any platform to spread harmful conspiracy theories that have done real world harm. No company should profit from spreading content that endangers our democracy."
