“This was a big week for OAN—although not in a good way,” offered John Oliver during Sunday evening’s edition of Last Week Tonight.
Yes, DirecTV finally agreed to drop the right-wing propaganda network One America News Network despite pleas from Republican attorneys general and senators for the satellite cable provider to keep it. And DirecTV is owned by AT&T, which recently sold its interest in Oliver’s parent company, WarnerMedia, following its merger with Discovery.
“Just so you know, the provider that he’s referring to there is DirecTV, which is a subsidiary of a parent company that I will not mention, because I don’t even like uttering their name out of my mouth,” joked Oliver.
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“Interestingly, as of Friday, AT&T officially no longer owns us, so it is goodbye for me, business daddy, and let me just say this”—Oliver added, before holding two middle fingers up—“which is frankly two more bars than you have ever had.”
Oliver had previously attacked his then-parent company AT&T over its involvement in OAN’s rise—“with about 90 percent of its revenue generated from its AT&T and DirecTV deals,” Oliver explained—not to mention the fact that AT&T executives came up with the idea of creating OAN in the first place.
Well, OAN’s finally been dropped from DirecTV—“and not a moment too soon,” said Oliver, as the channel’s coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine has been despicable, including baselessly questioning whether a Ukrainian maternity hospital was even bombed by Russian forces.
OAN has subsequently decided to sue DirecTV for $1 billion, claiming it violated “a non-disparagement provision” in its contract with AT&T because shows it owns spoke ill of OAN—including Oliver’s Last Week Tonight.
It cited Oliver calling OAN, among other things, “a ragtag band of fascists… who are happy to give a platform to batshit election fraud theories from America’s most out-of-breath pillow fetishist.”
Zero lies detected.
