(FreedomBeacon.com)- Two weeks ago, Verizon issued a statement announcing it was dropping the right-leaning One America News from the FiOS TV line-up on July 31 after OAN failed to agree to the terms of a new broadcast contract. And OAN’s owner and CEO responded by accusing a nameless “somebody” of conspiring to force service providers into dropping the controversial network.
Appearing on his network last Wednesday, CEO Robert Herring claimed there was a coordinated effort “at the top” to deny OAN distribution.
When OAN host Pearson Sharp asked Herring why he thought Verizon decided not to renew its contract to air the network, Herring implied that Verizon’s surprising decision is part of a coordinated effort to silence his embattled news network.
Herring told Sharp that Verizon’s decision was unexpected. He said he made significant concessions during negotiations with Verizon, including making OAN available at no charge, to remain on FiOS, but Verizon declined.
When asked why he thought Verizon and other providers don’t want to carry OAN, Herring said he didn’t know, but added that “there’s somebody at the top that I’m pretty sure we know who it is that’s directing this.”
He implied that this “somebody” is likely one of the people suing OAN, but said he didn’t want to name who the “somebody” is.
OAN had been dropped by DirecTV earlier this year. Herring sued DirecTV’s owner AT&T for breach of contract, but the suit failed.
Meanwhile, Comcast and Charter, the two major cable companies, never carried One America News.
Up until last week, Verizon FiOS was the only major provider broadcasting OAN.
With that gone, OAN is only carried by some smaller TV providers.
