Donald Trump has spoken out against Time Warner Cable’s decision to drop One America News, a far-right TV station that routinely praises him.
“I believe the people of this Country should protest the decision to eliminate OAN, a very important voice,” the former president said in a statement on Monday. “Demand that OAN be allowed to stay on the air. It is far bigger and more popular than anyone knows, and importantly, it represents the voice of a very large group of people!”
In recent months, multiple cable providers have axed OAN, an outspokenly pro-Trump network that has been accused of promoting right-wing conspiracy theories – including in a $1.6bn lawsuit by two voting machine companies, Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems.
On Monday, Mr Trump called the channel “very popular and wonderful,” and commanded his supporters to punish cable providers for dropping it.
“Between heavily indebted Time Warner, and Radical Left Comcast, which runs Xfinity, there is a virtual monopoly on news, thereby making what you hear from the LameStream Media largely FAKE, hence the name FAKE NEWS!” the ex-president wrote.
In January, DirecTV announced that it will not renew its contract with OAN – a decision that Mr Trump loudly protested as well.
“It is a very popular channel, far more popular than most would understand, and they are being treated horribly by the Radical Left lunatics running the networks,” the former president said of OAN. “Instead of being allowed to grow, their voice is being shuttered. Don’t let it happen, cancel DirecTV. If you feel infringed by what this Communist movement is doing, cancel DirecTV!”
One of OAN’s anchors, Dan Ball, responded to the decision by asking his viewers to dig up “dirt” on William Kennard, the chair of DirecTV’s majority owner, AT&T.
“If you’ve got any dirt … I’d love to see it and put it on this programme,” Mr Ball said. “You bring me concrete evidence of whatever it may be – cheating on his taxes, cheating on his wife, saying racial slurs towards white people, folks do that – whatever it may be, find it for me, bring it, and we’ll air it.”
The Independent has reached out to OAN for comment.
