AT&T backs One America News

The Walter J. and Ermalee Hickel House

Two years ago I found myself in a low-cost, motel-like residence for families of patients at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.  It's called the Walter J. and Ermalee Hickel House.

My husband had suffered pulmonary emboli while we were on a cruise to see Alaska's glaciers.  

I spent many evenings in my room with very few television options.  There was no MSNBC.  

At least there was CNN, the channel that reports both sides.  "The sky is blue.  Now let's hear what QAnon and the Proud Boys think."

While searching for access to national news, I came across One America News Network.

"This is more far-right than Fox News!" I reported to my husband on my visits back to the hospital.

It was incredible, but I figured the hospital's connection to the Catholic church was the cause.  Either that or all of Alaska is being fed this hogwash.

I didn't do any research on OANN when I got back to Los Angeles, but now in October 2021 it has popped up in the news as being founded and funded largely by AT&T.

Should I stop paying $128 to AT&T each month?

I'm afraid the answer is yes.  

That's what Rick Stengel of Media Matters told listeners a few days ago while being interviewed by Nicolle Wallace on Deadline: White House--on MSNBC.  (See my previous blog post.)

"AT&T is allegedly One America News Network's biggest backer" says a report on The Verge on October 6, 2021.  

Reuters Investigates was the first to report the connection between Trump TV: the AT&T Connection.

I'm grateful to be back in a part of the world where I have access to news that is not far-right propaganda.  I'm sorry I need to find another cell phone provider.

Will this be like the time in 1995 when I heard about Shell Oil's actions in Nigeria and cancelled my Shell credit card? 

Within a few years I learned that Mobil and all the other oil corporations were doing equally bad things elsewhere--but I didn't stop buying gasoline and driving my car.

Maybe all the owners of the media corporations are buddies.  Maybe I won't be able to find a cell service that's not enslaved to the racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, pro-billionaire, pro-Trump forces behind the January 6 insurrection.

3 Ways to Boycott Murdoch

Rick Stengel of Media Matters on MSNBC

"When are they going to admit there was no insurrection?" asked Tucker Carlson on Fox News on September 16, 2021.  Another anchor, Laura Ingraham, made similar claims.

Thanks to Nicolle Wallace in her Deadline: White House news hour today on MSNBC for reporting on the cumulative lies spoken on Fox and even printed in today's Wall Street Journal.

She interviewed Rick Stengel of the nonprofit Media Matters on reports that Fox is about to release a "documentary" claiming that the attack on the Capitol and its police officers was a false flag--an action set up by the FBI to make the right look bad. 

Fox is "supporting people who committed the earlier insurrection, and they're motivating people to do another one," says Stengel. 

Even Geraldo Rivera, another Fox anchor, spoke out against lies by Carlson today, calling his words "inflammatory and outrageous and uncorroborated." 

To make matters worse, the Wall Street Journal today published a Trump letter to the editor repeating his false election claims.  

The Fox "documentary" makes the false flag claim that the Jan. 6 insurrection was planned by the FBI to make the right wing look bad.

"There are dozens and dozens of people who are on trial for their crimes in participating in that riot,  " he observes.  "They are testifying about their planning and their actions that day."

"The myth of the great fraud is his platform for 2024 if he runs again, and they promote it because the audience wants to hear and loves it," explained Stengel.

"I think if they aired porn, they'd like that too," replied Wallace, "There are some things that are not suitable to air, that violate norms and standards."

 Can lies like this qualify as speech protected by the First Amendment?

"The one kind of speech that is not protected is speech that leads directly or indirectly to violence," notes Rick Stengel, citing the Brandenburg decision by the Supreme Court in 1955.

Enough summarizing of current lies, whether on heard on Fox News or printed in the Wall Street Journal.

How can we, the people, protest these lies on Fox News and in the Journal, both owned by the Murdoch family?  

"One way that people can protest is to boycott all the products and outlets owned by Rupert Murdoch, which fuel and support Fox News," Stengel says.  Read his call for a boycott on the Media Matters website.  

• Cancel your subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal or anything owned by the Murdochs.
• Don't watch the NFL on Fox Sports
• Don't use the products advertised on Fox Sports or in the WSJ.

"That's the sort of thing that will get Rupert Murdoch's attention," advises Stengel. "There's a very traditional form of protest and boycott that's available to people.  Grassroots public protest is perfectly acceptable and very effective."

Most of us can only boycott Murdoch's media empire partially, though, because his NewsCorp owns so much of what we watch, from Hulu to American Idol.

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Footnote: Both News Corp and the Fox Corporation, News Corp's sister company and successor to the former 21st Century Fox, are owned and controlled by the Murdoch family.

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