{"id":8022,"date":"2021-11-08T14:47:07","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T19:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/press-releases\/major-civil-rights-human-rights-and-media-justice-groups-demand-att-and-directv-sever-ties-to-one-america-news\/"},"modified":"2021-11-08T14:47:07","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T19:47:07","slug":"grose-burgerrechts-menschenrechts-und-medienrechtsgruppen-fordern-dass-att-und-directv-ihre-verbindungen-zu-one-america-news-abbrechen","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/de\/press\/major-civil-rights-human-rights-and-media-justice-groups-demand-att-and-directv-sever-ties-to-one-america-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Wichtige B\u00fcrgerrechts-, Menschenrechts- und Medienrechtsgruppen fordern, dass AT&T und DIRECTV ihre Verbindungen zu One America abbrechen."},"template":"","class_list":["post-8022","press","type-press","status-publish","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"WASHINGTON \u2014 On Monday, 16 civil-rights, human-rights and media-justice organizations called on the top executives at AT&T and DIRECTV to cut business ties with One America News Network, the propaganda channel responsible for spreading anti-democratic disinformation, promoting COVID-19 conspiracy theories and fueling racism.","featured_image":"","press_type":236,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":7855}"],"related_issues":[134,136,137,2065,2082],"related_work":false,"location":46},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\nWASHINGTON \u2014 On Monday, 16 civil-rights, human-rights and media-justice organizations called on the top executives at AT&T and DIRECTV to cut business ties with One America News Network, the propaganda channel responsible for spreading anti-democratic disinformation, promoting COVID-19 conspiracy theories and fueling racism.\r\n\r\nIn a Brief<\/a>\u00a0addressed to AT&T CEO John T. Stankey and DIRECTV CEO Bill Morrow, the groups write that the companies\u2019 support of OANN directly undermines their public commitments to race equity. The letter also notes that both AT&T and DIRECTV bear responsibility for providing the channel with a nationwide TV platform to spread election lies and deadly health disinformation. \u201cWe call on DIRECTV to stop carrying OANN and for AT&T to do everything in its power to denounce and remove OANN from its lucrative platform,\u201d the letter reads.\r\n\r\nIn October, Reuters reported that AT&T helped conceive and fund OANN: Inspiration to launch OANN came from AT&T executives in 2013 and AT&T subsequently provided a crucial financial lifeline for OANN to grow and prosper. Reuters also quoted OANN\u2019s founder revealing that 90 percent of the company\u2019s income comes from AT&T-majority-owned TV platform DIRECTV.\r\n\r\nThe\u00a0Brief<\/a>, led by Free Press, was also signed by Color Of Change, Common Cause, Decode Democracy, 18 Million Rising, Friends of the Earth, GLAAD, Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, Greenpeace USA, Guns Down America, Kairos, MediaJustice, Media Matters for America, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Open MIC and the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry.\r\n\r\n\u201cAT&T helped conceive, finance and provide a megaphone for Donald Trump\u2019s big lie,\u201d said\u00a0Nora Benavidez<\/strong>, senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights at Free Press. \u201cOne America News would not exist without AT&T\u2019s money and DIRECTV\u2019s national platform. It wouldn\u2019t have been able to mislead millions with dangerous, hateful and dishonest messages that undermine our democracy and threaten our diverse communities. These two media giants continue to spout talking points about race equity while supporting a network that\u2019s given a national stage to white supremacists and promoted lies about public health. We\u2019re calling AT&T CEO John Stankey and DIRECTV CEO Bill Morrow to account for their hypocrisy and are urging both of their companies to cut all ties with One America News.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cRight-wing conspiracy-theory network OANN and all of its lies simply would not exist and could not survive without AT&T keeping it alive,\u201d said Media Matters President and CEO\u00a0Angelo Carusone<\/strong>. \u201cAT&T bankrolled OANN \u2014 and incredulously \u2014 re-upped their support, knowing full well everything the network has done \u2014 from advancing deadly COVID-19 misinformation, hyping bogus claims of election fraud and organizing its viewers in support of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results to pushing anti-LGBTQ content and racial slurs. AT&T\u2019s stake in OANN is so consequential that unless they withdraw their support, the network will continue to thrive even without any major advertisers. We are fast approaching the moment when AT&T must decide what to do with the waning contract. AT&T is already overpaying for OANN. It\u2019s in their business interest and in the country\u2019s best interest for AT&T to stop propping up OANN and just let the contract expire without renewal.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThe 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\u2019s coverage of the pandemic,\u201d said Common Cause Media & Democracy Program Director\u00a0Josef Getachew<\/strong>\u201eAT&T muss f\u00fcr seine Rolle beim Aufbau und der Finanzierung von OANN zur Rechenschaft gezogen werden, und DIRECTV darf dieses gef\u00e4hrliche Desinformationsnetzwerk nicht l\u00e4nger betreiben.\u201c\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n