One America News Network is pulling an about-face after the far-right news network seemed to endorse President Biden’s nomination of Gigi Sohn as an FCC commissioner. She received a surprising endorsement last month when OANN President Charles Herring published a letter supporting her. When asked on Tuesday if OAN supports the nomination, Herring’s father, OAN owner and founder Robert Herring, said: “There’s no way this company would ever support her, and no way I’ll ever let it happen. She shouldn’t be anywhere near the FCC as far as I’m concerned.”
OAN Plus, the over-the-top news channel from Herring Networks, is launching on a digital subchannel of OTA (over-the-air) distributor independent KPVM-TV Las Vegas. OAN Plus is a fee ad-supported spin-off of the national cable news network and will now add 2.7 million over-the-air homes via the TV station.
Voting machine companies, including Antonio Mugica’s Smartmatic, threaten defamation lawsuits against Fox, Newsmax and OAN.
The challenges are unlikely to knock Fox News from its perch as the cable news ratings giant. Fox has spent billions investing in its around-the-clock news division and its primetime lineup draws millions of viewers every night. But fledgling conservative outlets such as Newsmax and One America News see an opportunity to challenge Fox by providing unabashed pro-Trump news and commentary.
With his claims rejected by courts and dismissed by state officials, America’s most powerful cable news junkie has expanded his diet beyond Fox News, relying more on networks that are willing to parrot and feed his unfounded claims of an electoral conspiracy. His support, in person and via an increasing number of tweets, has bolstered these networks’ viewership and aided their upstart effort to compete with Fox News.
