#oann

Anthony Orrico at HuffPost:

A key media ally of President Donald Trump is starting to circle the wagons in the wake of the Justice Department’s establishment of his $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” stemming from his lawsuit against the IRS. One America News, a pro-Trump network that promoted false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, is reportedly weighing claiming a piece of the taxpayer-funded slush fund, according to a report from CNN. A lawyer from OAN told the outlet that the company is “seriously considering pursuing rights under this fund and will make a decision shortly about whether to file a claim.” Most major cable providers dropped OAN after it settled multiple defamation lawsuits related to the 2020 election conspiracies.

CNN reportedly reached out to Fox News to inquire if they’d seek a claim under the fund, given that the network also settled a defamation lawsuit, similar to OAN, brought by Dominion Voting Systems for $787 million. Fox News has not responded as of yet, according to the report.

John Knefel at MMFA:

When Harris Faulkner concluded a recent interview with Tom Homan — President Donald Trump’s “border czar” tasked with carrying out the administration’s mass deportation operations — she did so with a benediction.  “God bless you, Tom Homan, for keeping us safe,” the Fox News anchor said solemnly. Fox host Jesse Watters took a different, more threatening approach when he demanded that Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), who is Guatemalan American, “acknowledge” that “no other country is as great as the United States,” and “if she doesn't, I'm calling Homan — she's going home.” 

The devotion that Faulkner and Watters show to Homan is hardly unique in right-wing media. More than any other figure in Trump’s inner circle save perhaps deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Homan is the person conservative outlets turn to when they need someone in Trump-world to champion the administration’s increasingly unpopular immigration policies. According to a Media Matters review, Homan has appeared on Fox News 78 times this year and an additional 20 times on Fox Business, making him the most frequent Trump administration guest on the Fox networks since Trump's inauguration. But his reach in conservative media extends far beyond those appearances. 

Over the month of July, right-wing media fawned over Homan in interviews, aiding him in manufacturing false narratives about widespread migrant crime and encouraging him to threaten so-called sanctuary cities with increased raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.  Conservative interviewers also ignored or downplayed horrific conditions at a Florida immigrant detention camp known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” including allegations that detainees had been subjected to overflowing toilets, food filled with worms, and had been chained to the ground. A whistleblower just came forward describing “inhumane conditions” at the facility. These interviewers simultaneously offered Homan a platform to wildly inflate the number of so-called criminals and “national security threats” that ICE had arrested.  This dynamic illustrates the symbiotic relationship between Homan, who had his own lucrative career as a conservative pundit and consultant, and the right-wing media ecosystem — where each party has an incentive to demonize immigrants, ignore critical reporting, and create narratives about social disorder that they attribute to immigrant communities, all in the service of Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

[...]

Cascading reports of horrific conditions at “Alligator Alcatraz”

Right-wing media have amplified Homan’s fearmongering even as they have largely ignored or downplayed the harms ICE is causing throughout the country, as embodied most viscerally at Alligator Alcatraz. That campaign of ignorance notwithstanding, the public has had access to horror stories from the southern Florida facility virtually from its first hours of operation.  Officials began holding people at the facility on July 2, and by July 4 reports of harsh living conditions were already starting to emerge. NBC 6 Miami reported the encampment faced swarms of mosquitos, heavy downpours, and high temperatures, all of which were standard fare for the remote area of southern Florida. The outlet later spoke with a detained man who said there was “no water here to bathe,” that the fluorescent lights were always on, and that the food, which detainees were given once a day, “has worms in it.” Another person held there had been denied his medication.

On July 9, The Miami Herald published a lengthy investigation into Alligator Alcatraz, reporting that detainees had no access to showers or water with which to flush the toilets, that giant bugs had breached the tent walls, and that temperatures whipsawed between freezing cold and swelteringly hot. Many of those details were subsequently confirmed by The Associated Press, which added that there were “flooding floors with fecal waste,” and The Washington Post, which reported that some detainees had been “shackled to a bench.”  Conditions only deteriorated from there. On July 22, NBC News reported a man held at the facility had developed fungus on his feet from the standing water and overall poor sanitation. The same day, The Guardian cited immigration advocates who claimed at least six people sent to the facility had been hospitalized. WLRN Public Media spoke on the phone to a migrant in the camp, who said guards “chained me to the ground,” forced him to stand in the sun without water from 1-7 p.m., and “called him the n-word.” 

Lawyers and immigration advocates for the detainees have sued in federal court, alleging that the Trump administration and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have created a legal black hole where the ultimate jurisdiction for the facility is deliberately opaque. “This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are held incommunicado, with no ability to access the courts, under legal authority that has never been explained and may not exist,” the plaintiffs argued. Detainees there have reportedly gone on hunger strike, though DHS denies the claim. Videos show ambulances entering and leaving the facility repeatedly over the course of several days.

In short, Alligator Allcatraz is operating as an extrajudicial concentration camp designed to disappear and punish immigrants largely outside formal legal processes. If Tom Homan and his MAGA media allies have their way, it won’t be the last. DeSantis has already suggested his state will soon unveil a second detention camp, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the government is looking to open similar facilities in Arizona, Nebraska, and Louisiana. On August 5, Noem announced a second camp would be opened in Indiana, dubbed the “Speedway Slammer.”

Justin Baragona at The Independent:

Gabrielle Cuccia, a self-described “MAGA girl” who served as One America News’ chief Pentagon correspondent, says the far-right network fired her after she criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s war against the press. In a blistering Substack post, Cuccia – who served in the first Trump administration – tore into the Pentagon for limiting media access and blasted Hegseth for not holding one press briefing since taking over as the head of the Defense Department. Specifically, she took issue with the agency closing off portions of the Pentagon that had previously always been open to reporters. “He claims it’s to ‘reduce the opportunity for in-person inadvertent or unauthorized disclosures.’ But let’s be honest — since January, the real leaks from the Pentagon haven’t come from the press. They’ve come from Hegseth’s own team and other senior officials,” she wrote. “I personally know reporters who’ve sent formal emails to Hegseth’s office requesting clarification on specific topics — and received radio silence in return,” Cuccia added. “Let’s call this what it is: limiting freedom of movement in the name of ‘national security.’” Making sure to burnish her pro-Trump bona fides, Cuccia noted that it is “pretty obvious how I feel about fake news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, CBS, and ABC,” adding that she thinks “their obsession with advocating for transgender inclusion in the military is a complete waste of time and taxpayer resources.”

At the same time, though, she noted that while their “coverage may not be my cup of tea,” it “doesn’t mean I stand behind Hegseth’s decision” to limit reporters’ movements through the Pentagon. “It also raises a fair question: why has the Department prioritized limiting press access, while the Secretary of Defense himself has yet to hold a briefing in the press room during his first 100 days?” Cuccia also asked. Two days after she published her fateful Substack post, Cuccia told CNN that her bureau chief asked her to turn in her Pentagon badge. The following days, she said, she was let go by the network.

[...] Cuccia, who had briefly worked for OAN as a White House correspondent towards the end of the first Trump administration, was re-hired by OAN in February to lead its defense coverage after Hegseth took away NBC’s longtime workspace and handed it to the MAGA channel. This was, of course, part of the administration’s larger effort to push out mainstream media outlets and elevate sympathetic right-wing coverage. Initially elated with the opportunity, Cuccia would take to her social media accounts to document how she personally renovated the old NBC office into what she deemed “Liberty Lounge.” Still, her joy soon grew into skepticism and disillusionment over the way Hegseth handled the Signalgate scandal.

[...] Cuccia isn’t the only conservative media figure who has scrutinized the Pentagon press crackdown. After CNN first reported on her firing, Fox News media host Howie Kurtz highlighted the criticism over Hegseth’s actions against the media and brought on former CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr to blast the defense secretary (and former Fox News host) for restricting press access.

Gabrielle Cuccia, who recently worked for pro-MAGA outlet OANN on her 2nd stint there, was fired for daring to criticize Pete Hegseth’s anti-media policies in the Pentagon. The fact that such criticisms are coming from a right-wing pro-Trump reporter should sting all the more.

See Also:

Mediaite: Pro-Trump Reporter Reveals She Was Fired from OAN After Criticizing Pete Hegseth and Pentagon’s Crackdown on the Press

The Guardian: Reporter says she was fired from Trump-friendly outlet after criticizing Hegseth

Jane Lee, Helena Hind, and Isabella Corrao at MMFA:

Trump adviser Kari Lake has announced that international broadcasting network Voice of America will include content from One America News Network, a pro-Trump propaganda network. Since Donald Trump's inauguration, OAN personalities have pushed bizarre and inflammatory foreign policy commentary, including referring to Canada as “our vassal state,” calling Greenland ”the new Africa,” and pushing for a revival of “manifest destiny.” They’ve also run cover for Trump over his planned acceptance of a luxury jet from Qatar.

The Trump administration wants to feed content from OAN to Voice of America — after canceling contracts with existing wire services

Kari Lake, senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, announced that the government-funded broadcaster would be fed content from One America News, a notoriously pro-Trump network. Lake announced that the agency will provide “newsfeed services” to Voice of America, and to the Office of Cuba Broadcasting and Radio Martí, which distribute news into Cuba. [NPR, 4/22/25, 5/7/25; Washington Post, 5/7/25]

Voice of America, an international broadcasting network, is funded by the federal government but required by law to maintain editorial independence. NPR writes: “The … networks deliver information to countries around the world that lack a robust or free press. The networks are intended to promote American democratic values by broadcasting news that models independent journalism, incorporates political debate and dissent even inside the U.S.” [NPR, 4/22/25; Society of Professional Journalists, 3/17/25]

The government agency that runs the Voice of America moved to terminate contracts with The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. The AP reported that VOA staffers were told to stop using wire service material for their reports. [Associated Press, 3/14/25]

After the 2020 election, OAN promoted false claims that the election had been stolen from Trump and was repeatedly sued for those claims, ultimately settling the suits. The network repeatedly accused Smartmatic, Dominion Voting Systems, and two Georgia election workers of helping rig the election, with Trump even recycling one of the election conspiracy theories it helped mainstream. The network was subsequently sued for defamation in separate lawsuits and has since reached settlements. [Media Matters, 12/16/20, 12/22/20, 4/15/21; NPR, 5/7/25]

MAGA cheerleader Kari Lake has plans to push far-right content from OANN onto Voice of America.

See Also:

Ross Rosenfeld at The New Republic:

While Donald Trump attempts to bypass Congress in cutting funding to NPR and PBS, his senior advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, perennial election loser Kari Lake, announced on X earlier this week that she’s struck a deal with One America News to “provide” the right-wing outlet’s “newsfeed services” to the government-funded outlets her agency oversees—Voice of America being the most prominent among them. Lake touted the deal as “an enormous benefit to the American taxpayer,” since OAN, which has a TV channel and website, agreed to provide their newsfeed “free-of-charge.” “We are grateful for their generosity,” she wrote. Yet the generosity might actually be flowing in the other direction, as Lake’s move will allow OAN to tap into VOA’s weekly audience of 360 million people around the world—and turn a once unbiased global beacon of American journalism into a Pravda for the Trump regime.

VOA was first created in 1942 to help combat fascism and Nazi disinformation. As it notes in its mission statement, “An essential guarantee of the journalistic credibility of Voice of America content is the ‘firewall’ enshrined in the 1994 U.S. International Broadcasting Act. The firewall prohibits interference by any U.S. government official in the objective, independent reporting of news, thereby safeguarding the ability of our journalists to develop content that reflects the highest professional standards of journalism, free of political interference.” That’s not exactly OAN’s approach to journalism. Scour its content (if you dare), and you’ll find stories that seem engineered for the White House’s new Drudge Report–style propaganda feed. Some merely put a MAGA spin on the news (“Trump April Jobs Report Shatters Expectations As Native-Born Workers Win Big”) or heap laughable praise on Dear Leader (“Trump is just as much of a lion as Churchill”), while others are pure fiction (“DOGE Team Exposes Millions Of Illegal Aliens Voting In Elections”). Worshipful coverage of the GOP has always been part of OAN’s DNA, but the network, which launched in 2013, hitched its wagon to MAGA as the movement descended (further) into conspiracy theories in the wake of the 2020 election. Founder Robert Herring insisted that anchors promote Trump’s claims of election fraud and barred them from referring to Biden as “president.” It was a poor business decision. YouTube suspended it for misinformation in 2020 (read all about it at VOA!), and in 2022 DirecTV dropped it entirely. Over the past two years, OAN has settled two defamation lawsuits related to its election denialism.

But perhaps nothing better explains OAN’s values these days than the fact that they gave a weeknight show to former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, who is so detestable that even many Republicans have distanced themselves from him. Trump nominated Gaetz for attorney general late last year, but Gaetz was forced to withdraw after a House ethics report—led by Republicans, mind you—found “substantial evidence” that during his time in Congress he had sex with a seventeen-year-old, paid women for sex, and accepted gifts exceeding congressional limits.

[...] Another host, the oft-mendacious Dan Ball, frequently espouses conspiracy theories and has a regular “This Week in Woke America” segment that makes misleading charges against liberals like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whom he calls “champagne liberals.” He’s brought on disgraced doctor Robert Malone to defend Robert F. Kennedy’s unfounded claim that vaccines may be causing autism. He’s also welcomed Steven Friend, a former FBI agent who, before becoming an advisor to FBI Director Kash Patel, had his security clearance revoked after he refused to arrest anyone involved in the January 6 attack. In a segment on “Biden’s scheme to spy on Americans,” Friend claimed that the former president’s spying “laid the groundwork for them to debank people,” “coordinate with universities to repress free speech,” and alert the military that “pro-lifers were potentially terrorists.” Ball called it a form of “tyranny”—the kind, he said, that Democrats accuse Trump of doing, but “he’s not.”

It’s not just what you’ll find on OAN that’s the problem, though. It’s also what you won’t find: criticism of the president.

The Voice of America will be rife with right-wing propaganda, as unabashedly pro-Trump propaganda outlet One America “News” Network content will be supplied to the VOA feed.

See Also:

Justin Baragona at The Independent:

Senior Trump adviser Kari Lake announced that she’d struck a deal with One America News to blast the right-wing channel’s pro-Trump propaganda out to the audience of Voice of America, making it clear what her intentions are for the government-run radio network. “United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is excited to announce a partnership with One America News Network (OAN) to provide newsfeed services to USAGM networks, including Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Radio Martí, and Voice of America (VOA),” Lake posted Tuesday on social media. Noting that OAN was offering “their newsfeed and video service free-of-charge,” Lake acknowledged that while she may not have editorial control over VOA content in her role as senior adviser to the agency, she “can ensure our outlets have reliable and credible options as they work to craft their reporting and news programs.” “And every day I look for ways to save American taxpayers money. Bringing in OAN as a video/news source does both,” she added. “OAN is one of the few family-owned American media networks left in the United States. We are grateful for their generosity.” Lake did not immediately respond to requests for comment. OAN President Charles Herring, who also retweeted the Trump official’s post about the partnership, told The Independent that “Ms. Lake provided a complete summary.” The new partnership with one of the president’s most loyal media outlets comes just days after Lake informed VOA staffers that she would be implementing a structured return-to-office plan.

[...] OAN, which has been booted from nearly every major cable and satellite subscription service, was one of the biggest purveyors of Trump’s baseless conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The network has settled multiple defamation lawsuits over its promotion of falsehoods about the 2020 election, which includes voting software company Smartmatic, two election workers in Georgia, and a former executive for voting machine firm Dominion. OAN is still facing a defamation case from Dominion, which the outlet baselessly accused of rigging the election for Joe Biden. Despite the network being nearly impossible to find on cable airwaves, OAN has seen its profile rise after Trump’s return to office. While its reporters have been featured more prominently in press briefings and gaggles at the White House, Matt Gaetz – the president’s disgraced initial pick for attorney general – serves as one of the channel’s primetime hosts.

MAGA hack Kari Lake announces that far-right propaganda outlet One America “News” Network (OANN) and United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) have formed a partnership for newsfeed content sharing, including to the Voice of America and Radio Martí outlets.

See Also:

The Guardian: Embattled Voice of America to use newsfeed from hard-right network

Axios: Kari Lake says USAGM has brokered a content deal with OAN

Josephine Harvey at HuffPost:

Scandal-plagued former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) made his hosting debut on One America News Network on Thursday night after his failed attorney bid and the release of a damning House Ethics Committee report. The controversial right-wing network announced last month that Gaetz would be joining its prime-time lineup with “The Matt Gaetz Show” in a 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. slot, weeks after he withdrew as Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department.

Among other guests, Gaetz hosted fellow pro-MAGA extremists Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to discuss House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) battle to hold on to his gavel in a congressional vote this Friday. But after the network released a teaser clip on Thursday, a large portion of the feedback focused on a totally unrelated subject. “lol to whoever did his concealer,” one person wrote. “Blending, this diva needs blending,” said another social media user. “However much you might despise Matt Gaetz, his makeup person has you beat,” wrote another. “Don’t expect Gaetz to tone down anything especially his lies,” read another comment on the makeup.

Lee Moran at HuffPost:

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is reportedly heading to pro-Donald Trump TV. Gaetz’s first post-failed attorney general nomination gig (aside from his cringe-inducing side hustle of hawking personalized videos on Cameo) will be as a primetime anchor for One America News Network, reported CNN on Monday. The ex-lawmaker hasn’t confirmed the role. But OAN has published a page on its website that teases “The Matt Gaetz Show” as “coming soon.”