Salon: Coalition demands AT&T sever ties with pro-Trump “propaganda channel” OANN

A coalition of prominent rights organizations demanded Monday that AT&T and DirecTV completely sever ties with the One America News Network, a rabidly pro-Trump media outlet that the groups slammed for “spreading anti-democratic disinformation, promoting Covid-19 conspiracy theories, and fueling racism.”

In a letter to AT&T CEO John Stankey and DirecTV CEO Bill Morrow, the coalition points to a recent report that exposed the major role AT&T—the world’s largest telecom company—played in creating and funding OANN, which the media-justice group Free Press described as a “propaganda channel.”

AT&T owns a 70% stake in DirecTV, which the telecom behemoth spun off earlier this year. …

The coalition—which includes Color of Change, Greenpeace USA, Common Cause, and Global Project Against Hate and Extremism—argues that since its inception in 2013, OANN “has provided an open platform for purveyors of disinformation to spread dangerous and hateful messages that undermine our democracy.” …

Yosef Getachew, director of the Media and Democracy Program at Common Cause, said in a statement Monday that “the harmful disinformation OANN spreads has had real-world impacts on democracy and public health, from the violent insurrection on our Capitol to the death and suffering of so many who were misinformed by the network’s coverage of the pandemic.”

“AT&T must be held accountable for its role in building and bankrolling OANN,” Getachew added, “and DirecTV must no longer carry this dangerous disinformation network.”