

The next day, Harris was offered a position in another part of the company. Afterward, Harris filed an official racial discrimination complaint to Herring. The simmering tension erupted in August 2017, during a dispute over a segment about the removal of certain Confederate monuments. That failure, the jury decided Monday, was a substantial factor that caused harm to Harris.Īt the start of trial, Harris’ lawyers said their client had been subjected to demeaning and berating comments by Ledger during team meetings, on account of his liberal views and his perspectives as an African-American man. He also sued Graham Ledger, the host of the ultra-conservative “The Daily Ledger” talk show that Harris helped produce.Īside from Monday’s finding that Harris’ complaint alleging racial discrimination helped motivate his firing, the jury also found that the network failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the harassment, or discrimination, or retaliation. Harris’s lawsuit targeted the network’s parent company, Herring Network Inc., as well as CEO Robert Herring Sr., who founded One America News. Harris sued in 2018, alleging he was harassed at work based on his race as well as his liberal political views, which clashed with the cable channel’s conservative bent. Critics have questioned its journalistic standards. One America News Network, a small, family-owned cable channel based in San Diego, has gained national prominence in recent years. “While we respect the verdict they reached, we believe there are numerous appealable issues that we intend to explore,” Nellies said. OAN is still available on Verizon FiOS and a few other platforms, including the Herring Networks-owned KlowdTV.Attorney Patrick Nellies, who represented Herring Networks and the individual defendants, said that he and his clients appreciate “the jury’s time and efforts in this case and their careful and thoughtful deliberations.” In response to the Reuters report, AT&T denied having a financial interest in OAN's success.īloomberg reports that the contract between DirectTV and Herring Networks expires in early April. In 2020, an OAN accountant testified that 90% of OAN's revenue came from a contract with AT&T owned platforms such as DirecTV, Reuters reported. Herring sued AT&T, alleging it had broken an oral promise AT&T agreed as part of a settlement to carry OAN in 2017. But after AT&T finalized its purchase of DirecTV in 2015, AT&T declined to carry OAN or any other Herring programming. said in a court deposition, Reuters reported.ĪT&T carried OAN on its U-verse platform. "They told us they wanted a conservative network," OAN founder Robert Herring Sr. OAN did not respond to requests for comment.ĪT&T faced heavy criticism last year after a Reuters report found that the telecom giant played an integral role in OAN's 2013 launch.

The DirecTV spokesman declined to comment on whether OAN's specific editorial policies had anything to do with the decision to drop the network, but said that calls from outside groups didn't drive the decision. The question for DirecTV was whether OAN's programming appeals to a broad enough base of customers, given increasing programming costs and more competition for consumers. In a statement, DirecTV said it made the decision "following a routine internal review." A DirecTV spokesperson told NPR that the company looks at a wide variety of factors in deciding whether to renew a contract. The other channel, A Wealth of Entertainment, dubs itself a lifestyle channel that features luxury goods.
#ONE AMERICA NEWS NETWORK TV#
DirecTV isn't renewing the network's contract.ĭirecTV is dropping One America News Network from its lineup, a surprise move that's sure to deal a massive blow to the network that rose to prominence during the presidency of Donald Trump.īloomberg reported Friday that the satellite TV provider notified the owner of OAN, Herring Networks Inc., that it would no longer carry the company's two channels when their contract expires. One America News White House Correspondent Chanel Rion asks a question of President Donald Trump during a briefing about the coronavirus in April 2020.
