There’s still serious doubts about who’s actually president

[ROB]

Months after the inauguration of President Joe Biden, One America News Network, a right-wing cable news channel available in some 35 million households, has continued to broadcast segments questioning the validity of the 2020 presidential election.

“There’s still serious doubts about who’s actually president,” OAN correspondent Pearson Sharp said in a March 28 report.

OAN, which started in 2013, gained attention when it broadcast Trump’s campaign speeches in full before the 2016 election.
OAN, which started in 2013, gained attention when it broadcast Trump’s campaign speeches in full before the 2016 election.
That segment was one in a spate of similar reports from a channel that has become a kind of Trump TV for the post-Trump age, an outlet whose reporting has aligned with the former president’s grievances at a time when he is barred from major social media platforms.

Some of OAN’s coverage has not had the full support of the staff. In interviews with 18 current and former OAN newsroom employees, 16 said the channel had broadcast reports that they considered misleading, inaccurate or untrue.

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To go by much of OAN’s reporting, it is almost as if a transfer of power had never taken place. The channel did not broadcast live coverage of Biden’s swearing-in ceremony and inaugural address. Into April, news articles on the OAN website consistently referred to Donald Trump as “President Trump” and to Biden as just “Joe Biden” or “Biden.” That practice is not followed by other news organisations, including the OAN competitor Newsmax, a conservative cable channel and news site.

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OAN has also promoted the debunked theory that the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 were left-wing agitators. Toward the end of a March 4 news segment that described the attack as the work of “antifa” and “anti-Trump extremists” — and referred to the president as “Beijing Biden” — Sharp said, “History will show it was the Democrats, and not the Republicans, who called for this violence.” Investigations have found no evidence that people who identify with Antifa, a loose collective of anti-fascist activists, were involved in the Capitol riot.

Charles Herring, president of Herring Networks, the company that owns OAN, defended the reports casting doubt on the election. “Based on our investigations, voter irregularities clearly took place in the November 2020 election,” he said. “The real question is to what extent.”

Herring Networks was founded by Herring’s father, tech entrepreneur Robert Herring, who at age 79 runs OAN with Charles and another son, Robert Jr. About 150 employees work for the channel at its headquarters in San Diego.

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Nielsen does not report viewership statistics for OAN, which is not a Nielsen client. (Charles Herring cited Nielsen’s “heavy fees.“) In a survey last month, Pew Research reported that 7 per cent of Americans, including 14 per cent of Republicans, had gotten political news from OAN. By contrast, 43 per cent of Americans and 62 per cent of Republicans had gotten political news from Fox News, the survey found.

While OAN appeals to a relatively small audience, its coverage reflects views commonly held by Republicans. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll last month, about half of Republicans said they believed that the January 6 attack, which left five dead, was largely a nonviolent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists. Six in 10 Republicans surveyed said they also believed Trump’s claim that the election was “stolen.”

“Many people have raised concerns. And the thing is, when people speak up about anything, you will get in trouble.”
Former OAN news producer Allysia Britton, who left the network in the wake of the Capitol riot.
OAN, which started in 2013, gained attention when it broadcast Trump’s campaign speeches in full before the 2016 election. In recent months, it has courted viewers who may have felt abandoned by Fox News, which on election night was the first news outlet to project Biden as the winner of Arizona, a key swing state. In a mid-November promotional ad, OAN accused Fox News of joining “the mainstream media in censoring factual reporting.”

OAN’s stories “appeal to people who want to believe that the election was not legitimate,” said Stephanie Edgerly, an associate professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. “These are two mutually reinforcing narratives of people who want to believe it and continue to get that fire stoked by OAN.”

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Marty Golingan, a producer at the channel since 2016, said OAN had changed in recent years. At the start of his employment, he said, it concentrated more on neutral coverage based on reports from The Associated Press or Reuters. He saw it as a scrappy upstart where he could produce cheeky feature stories, he said.

During the Trump presidency, it moved right, Golingan said. And when he was watching coverage of the pro-Trump mob breaking into the Capitol, he said, he worried that his work might have helped inspire the attack.

He added that he and others at OAN disagreed with much of the channel’s coverage. “The majority of people did not believe the voter fraud claims being run on the air,” Golingan said in an interview, referring to his colleagues.

Into April, news articles on the OAN website consistently referred to Donald Trump as “President Trump” and to Biden as just “Joe Biden” or “Biden.”
Into April, news articles on the OAN website consistently referred to Donald Trump as “President Trump” and to Biden as just “Joe Biden” or “Biden.”CREDIT:AP
He recalled seeing a photo of someone in the Capitol mob holding a flag emblazoned with the OAN logo. “I was like, OK, that’s not good,” Golingan said. “That’s what happens when people listen to us.”

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Charles Herring defended OAN’s coverage. “A review process with multiple checks is in place to ensure that news reporting meets the company’s journalist standards,” he said. “And, yes, we’ve had our fair share of mistakes, but we do our best to keep them to a minimum and learn from our missteps.”

Golingan added that since Inauguration Day, OAN’s news director, Lindsay Oakley, had reprimanded him for referring to Biden as “President Biden” in news copy. Oakley did not reply to requests for comment.

“OAN’s staff White House reporters use the term President Biden and then may use Mr. Biden,” Charles Herring said. “The term Biden or Biden administration may also be used.” He declined to reply to a question on the channel’s use of “President Trump” for Trump.

Allysia Britton, a news producer, said she was one of more than a dozen employees who had left OAN in the wake of the Capitol riot. She criticised some of what the channel had reported, saying it was not up to journalistic standards.

“Many people have raised concerns,” Britton said in an interview. “And the thing is, when people speak up about anything, you will get in trouble.”

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Charles Herring confirmed that about a dozen OAN workers had left in recent months, saying many of them were not high-level employees.

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OAN’s online audience is significant, with nearly 1.5 million subscribers to its YouTube channel. One of its most popular videos, with about 1.5 million views since it went online November 24, criticised Dominion Voting Systems, the election technology company whose equipment was used in more than two dozen states last year, including several won by Trump. Hosted by the OAN White House correspondent, Chanel Rion, the video shows a man who said he had infiltrated Dominion and heard company executives say they would “make sure” Trump lost.

Dominion has sued Fox News and two of Trump’s lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, accusing them of making or promoting defamatory claims. A lawyer for Dominion, who did not reply to requests for comment, has said the company is considering further legal action.

Golingan, the producer, said some OAN employees had hoped Dominion would sue the channel. “A lot of people said, ‘This is insane, and maybe if they sue us, we’ll stop putting stories like this out,’” he said

[Kurt]

In some places among some people grown adult babies cannot accept the loss.

The thing is there is so much money to be made sucking these idiots dry is that they are a still a threat but are gradually destroying themselves....financially at least.

A state capitol will likely be stormed at some point. Probably Michigan then there will be much bitching and crying when the massive US security apparatus kicks in.

[Lost Boy]

In some places among some people grown adult babies cannot accept the loss.

The thing is there is so much money to be made sucking these idiots dry is that they are a still a threat but are gradually destroying themselves....financially at least.

A state capitol will likely be stormed at some point. Probably Michigan then there will be much bitching and crying when the massive US security apparatus kicks in.

I think you're forgetting that most of the "mostly peaceful, but fiery protests" come from the left-leaning types.

We were posted in force at the capitol during the inauguration because our brilliant politicians were terrified that a bunch of beer-swilling, NASCAR hat-wearing, AR-15-toting lunatics with MAGA capes would storm the capitol "insurrection-style" and take our esteemed governor hostage. We were backed up by national guard troops. No one showed up all night or the next day, except for one homeless dude who sat outside the cordon with a radio, while repeating the same incoherent speech about Fox news and the trilateral commission. In Kurt's defense, I think the guy might have been a Republican. He eventually got bored and left. I think our state spent a few million dollars to put down that particular insurrection. We were eventually dismissed with the sheepish reminder to be prepared and on standby in case something happens. It didn't.

[snaark]

I think you're forgetting that most of the "mostly peaceful, but fiery protests" come from the left-leaning types.

We were posted in force at the capitol during the inauguration because our brilliant politicians were terrified that a bunch of beer-swilling, NASCAR hat-wearing, AR-15-toting lunatics with MAGA capes would storm the capitol "insurrection-style" and take our esteemed governor hostage. We were backed up by national guard troops. No one showed up all night or the next day, except for one homeless dude who sat outside the cordon with a radio, while repeating the same incoherent speech about Fox news and the trilateral commission. In Kurt's defense, I think the guy might have been a Republican. He eventually got bored and left. I think our state spent a few million dollars to put down that particular insurrection. We were eventually dismissed with the sheepish reminder to be prepared and on standby in case something happens. It didn't.

That's some next-level selectivity.

[Lost Boy]

I think you're forgetting that most of the "mostly peaceful, but fiery protests" come from the left-leaning types.

We were posted in force at the capitol during the inauguration because our brilliant politicians were terrified that a bunch of beer-swilling, NASCAR hat-wearing, AR-15-toting lunatics with MAGA capes would storm the capitol "insurrection-style" and take our esteemed governor hostage. We were backed up by national guard troops. No one showed up all night or the next day, except for one homeless dude who sat outside the cordon with a radio, while repeating the same incoherent speech about Fox news and the trilateral commission. In Kurt's defense, I think the guy might have been a Republican. He eventually got bored and left. I think our state spent a few million dollars to put down that particular insurrection. We were eventually dismissed with the sheepish reminder to be prepared and on standby in case something happens. It didn't.

That's some next-level selectivity.

Feel free to elaborate.

[snaark]

Think about it. You'll get there eventually.

[ROB]

Think about it. You'll get there eventually.

Wanna bet?