One America News Network (OANN), also referred to as One America News (OAN), is an American right-wing^[1][2] pay television news channel launched on July 4, 2013, owned by Herring Networks, Inc. The network is headquartered in San Diego, California, and operates a news bureau in Washington, D.C.^[3] and New York City.

Originally launched with the intention of targeting a conservative and center-right audience,^[4][5] OAN states a goal of delivering credible national and international news coverage throughout the day while its prime time political talk shows illustrate a conservative perspective.^[6][7][8] The channel is pro-Trump.^[6][9] Both Vanity Fair and The Independent in London have said that the channel promotes falsehoods and conspiracy theories.^[7][10]

The formation of the organization was announced on March 14, 2013 by Herring Networks, Inc., an independent and family-owned national video programming company owns and operates OAN and sister channel AWE (formerly WealthTV; the initialism being an acronym for "A Wealth of Entertainment"). When the network began in 2013, it had a limited partnership with The Washington Times.^[3]

The network launched with the intention of targeting a conservative-leaning audience with OAN President Charles Herring telling the Conservative Political Action Conference that, "Fox News has done a great job serving the center-right and independent audiences...But those who consider themselves liberal have a half dozen or more choices on TV each day from which to get their news."^[11] Herring also stressed the network's separation of news and opinion content, with straight news reporting throughout the day and limited opinion commentary from evening talk shows, including The Daily Ledger hosted by Graham Ledger and The Tipping Point hosted by Liz Wheeler. Early advertisements for the channel touted the network's lack of commentary and focus on straight news reporting.^[12] The channel was formally launched on July 4, 2013.

In July 2014, OAN relocated its news and production studios out of The Washington Times Building to its new location at 101 Constitution Avenue NW, near the United States Capitol. The move ended OAN's relationship with The Washington Times, which provided news and analysis,^[13] as well as a lease space arrangement, for the network. While its Washington Bureau was previously located within the Times building, OAN remains solely owned and operated, including all editorial control, by Herring Networks, Inc.

In August 2014, OAN launched the show On Point with Tomi Lahren. Many clips of the program later went viral, and Lahren gained widespread attention for her commentaries in 2015. On August 19, 2015, Lahren completed her final show at OAN.^[14][15] On the week of August 24, former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin guest hosted a program on the network.^[16][17]

As of June 2019, One America News Network said it reached 35 million homes^[18] and its website lists availability via DirecTV, Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Prism TV, and other distributors.^[19]

The One America News Network uses both the acronyms OAN and OANN. On TV, it predominantly uses OAN whereas on Twitter it is known as OANN. The network's website URL is OAN.^[18]

In June 2019, OANN had approximately 150 staff.^[18]

OANN is known for its pro-Trump content, promotion of conspiracy theories and criticisms of the mainstream media.^[18] The media watchdog site mediabiasfactcheck.com rates OANN towards the extreme side ^[65] of right wing content.

OANN is pro-Trump.^{[6][20][21][22][18]} Robert Herring, Sr., founder and CEO of the network, has ordered producers to promote certain types of content, such as pro-Trump stories, anti-Clinton stories and anti-abortion stories, and minimize stories about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.^[6] According to a number of former and current employees at the channel, as well as internal e-mails, the executives of the channel have "directed his channel to push Trump’s candidacy, scuttle stories about police shootings, encourage antiabortion stories, minimize coverage of Russian aggression, and steer away from the new president’s troubles."^[6] During the 2016 presidential campaign, the channel ran a special titled "Betrayal at Benghazi: The Cost of Hillary Clinton’s Dereliction and Greed."^[6] Herring, the owner of the channel, sent producers at the channel a report falsely claiming that Hillary Clinton had a brain tumor, and asked them to check up on it.^[6] He also shared a report with producers that claimed that Planned Parenthood had promoted abortion, and ordered them to minimize coverage of Pope Francis's US visit due to the Pope's calls for action on global warming (see Laudato si').^[6] Herring repeatedly ordered his producers not to cover stories pertaining to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.^[6]

In October 2017, the channel said without any evidence that a "report" had been published which showed "U.K. Crime Rises 13% Annually Amid Spread of Radical Islamic Terror".^[23] President Trump later repeated this falsehood, suggesting that he learned of it from OAN.^[24][25]

In June 2017, One America News was granted a permanent seat in the White House's James Brady briefing room.^[26] The network's Chief White House Correspondent, Trey Yingst, was one of the top five most called upon reporters covering the Trump Administration.^[27] One America News has been repeatedly called on by President Trump during Presidential press conferences, including one in February 2017 when Yingst asked the President about his campaign's contacts with the Russian government.^[28] Also in February 2017, One America News was invited to a network lunch with President Trump.^[29] In August 2017, President Trump praised One America News, saying "It's a great network." In response, OANN CEO Robert Herring stated that One America News considers itself a tough but fair presence in the White House press corps.^[30]

OAN supported the Trump administration's revoking of CNN reporter Jim Acosta's press credentials. Most major media outlets, including the conservative Fox News, opposed the Trump administration's decision. In a statement, OAN CEO Robert Herring attacked Fox News, saying he "can't believe Fox is on the other side."^[31][32][33]

OANN broadcasts every Trump speech uninterrupted.^[18]

OANN promoted conspiracy theories about the murder of Seth Rich.^[7]

After The Washington Post reported allegations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore that he had molested or made inappropriate sexual contact with a number of women under the age of 18 (including a 14-year old), One America News "became a source of both positive coverage and stories that could cast doubt on his accusers."^[34] In November 2017, One America News aired a segment citing a false rumor by an anonymous Twitter account that The Washington Post had offered $1,000 to Roy Moore's accusers.^[35][36][37] One America News described the tweet as a "report" and described the tweeter as a "former Secret Service agent and Navy veteran".^[35][36] The Twitter account had a history of tweeting falsehoods and conspiracy theories; the Twitter account had also made repeated and inconsistent lies about its identity, including appropriating the identity of a Navy serviceman who died in 2007.^[36] After it was revealed that the story was a hoax, One America News did not retract its report.^[35]

During his Senate campaign, Roy Moore cited One America News when he defended himself against the accusations.^[38] Moore cited a One America News story that alleged that his "Accusers Have Ties to Drug Dealers & Washington Post".^[38][39][40]

During the night of the election, OANN announced that Moore had swept the election "by a large margin" when in actuality, Moore ended up losing the race.^[41] In its announcement, the network cited "unofficial polling" and the news anchor then extended the OAN CEO Robert Herring's congratulations to Moore on having run a "fine campaign."^[41] OAN's website also published an erroneous article claiming that Moore had won, writing that he won "despite attacks from Democrats about unverified allegations."^[41] During election night, OAN also said that it had "reports that a number of people have been caught trying to sneak into voting booths and vote illegally"; however, Alabama Secretary of State’s office said that it had no credible reports of voter fraud.^[42]

In February 2018, one of the hosts on OAN tweeted a conspiracy theory that a 17-year old survivor in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting had been coached to speak out against Trump by his retired FBI agent father and that Hogg was "running cover" for his FBI agent father.^[43][44] Donald Trump Jr. liked the OAN host's tweet.^[44] The 17-year old responded, describing the conspiracy theory as "immature, rude, and inhuman".^[45]

In April 2018, while on an al-Assad regime-led tour of the area of the Douma chemical attack, a OAN correspondent said that there was no evidence that a chemical attack had occurred.^[46] The correspondent said, "Not one of the people that I spoke to in that neighborhood said that they had seen anything or heard anything about a chemical attack on that day" and that residents "loved Bashar al-Assad."^[46]

In May 2019, OANN published a report claiming that the "terrorist-linked" White Helmets had admitted to staging fake chemical weapons attacks, which were intended to put blame on the Assad regime.^[21] The Daily Beast characterized the story as a "smear" that could be traced directly as Russian disinformation.^[21]

In 2018, OANN hired far-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec as a political correspondent.^{[47][48][49][50]} Posobiec was a prominent proponent of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and Murder of Seth Rich conspiracy theories.^[18][22]

In April 2018, OANN ran a segment where it falsely claimed that a California bill would ban the sale of Bibles.^[51] Within 24 hours, the OANN video was viewed 2.4 million times on Facebook.^[51] Snopes found that the claim was false, and noted that the bill targeted gay conversion therapy.^[51]

During the 2018 mid-term campaign, OANN ran a segment where it claimed that Democratic congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar's "father praised the deaths of the Israelis, saying they deserved to die." The Washington Post fact-checker noted that there is no attribution to this statement in the OANN segment. An OANN commentator also claimed that groups connected to the Muslim Brotherhood donated to Campa-Najjar's campaign and that the FEC website showed this. The Washington Post fact-checker said it "couldn’t find evidence of this after searching Campa-Najjar’s filings with the Federal Election Commission." The OANN segment was used in attack ads by Campa-Najjar's Republican opponent Duncan Hunter where Campa-Najjar was falsely tied to terrorism.^[52]

In July 2019, the network interviewed a pro-Trump activist about allegations of anti-conservative bias on Reddit. OANN identified the man as Dennis F. Charles and said he was a "a conservative social media analyst."^[22] However, that was not his name and OANN did not disclose that he was using a pseudonym.^[22]

OANN is known for downplaying threats posed to the United States by Russia. According to a former OANN producer, on his first day at OANN he was told, "Yeah, we like Russia here."^[18][53] One of OANN's reporters, Kristian Brunovich Rouz, simultaneously works for the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik; when Rouz runs segments on OANN that relate to Russia, OANN does not disclose that he also works for a Russian state-owned media.^[54]

OANN ran a wholly fabricated story alleging that Hillary Clinton's political action committee secretly gave $800,000 to Antifa.^[54]

OANN has run stories falsely claiming that George Soros, a Jewish-Hungarian philanthropist, collaborated with the Nazis when he was a 14-year old.^[54] The network has also accused Soros of funding migrant caravans to the United States.^[54]

In March 2015, USC media professor Marty Kaplan praised the network for its focus on what he viewed as impartial news reporting, writing in The Huffington Post that, "Ten minutes of OAN tells me eight stories; 10 minutes of Fox or MSNBC tells me one story, to make me mad" while noting that its opinion segments were "as delusional and incendiary as anything on conservative talk radio or Fox."^[55] Don Kaplan of the New York Daily News echoed similar sentiments, writing in December 2016 that, "it's by far one of the most fair news outlets around, serving up a daily diet of ad-free, non-ideological, nonstop news—without smirking, snarky anchors or much fanfare" while stating that its opinion segments "skew hard to the right."^[56] The Washington Post's Marc Fisher considers the network "a reliably sympathetic voice of the [Trump] administration’s goals and actions".^[57]

Media Matters for America criticized One America News Network host Liz Wheeler for advancing conspiracy theories relating to the Planned Parenthood 2015 undercover videos controversy and other abortion topics and tying tangentially related news stories to the "so-called liberal hypocrisy on abortion."^[58]

On September 10, 2019, the One America News Network filed suit in federal court in San Diego, California against MSNBC host Rachel Maddow for $10 million, after Maddow described the network as "paid Russian propaganda" on her program on July 22. Maddow had repeated a Daily Beast story which identified an OAN employee as also working for Sputnik News, which is owned by the Russian government-owned news agency Rossiya Segodnya, and has been accused of deliberately disseminating disinformation, and is often described as an outlet for propaganda. Also named in the suit were Comcast, MSNBC and NBCUniversal Media.^[59]

The network does not subscribe to Nielsen ratings, citing their high price. In March 2019, OANN cited Comscore set-top-box viewership data to say that it was the "fourth rated cable news network" that month.^[60]