(Bloomberg) — Republican attorneys general in six states have sent a letter to DirecTV, urging the satellite-TV provider to reverse its decision to drop One America News Network.
The officials called DirecTV’s decision “highly troubling and disappointing,” saying in the letter Thursday that the service was bowing to pressure from “powerful left-wing voices.” It was sent by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and co-signed by his peers from Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana and South Carolina.
“My fellow attorneys general and I strongly recommend that you reconsider your present course and renew your contract with OAN in April,” they said. “Your failure to do so will not only cause you to lose millions of dollars in business, but also drive many millions of Americans to simply cancel your services outright.”
DirecTV declined to comment. The letter was addressed to Bill Morrow, chief executive officer of DirecTV, with copies to his board and directors of AT&T Inc. DirecTV is owned by AT&T and TPG through a joint venture.
DirecTV said on Jan. 14 it plans to drop OAN, a conservative-leaning outlet that has been criticized for spreading misinformation about the pandemic and the 2020 election. DirecTV’s contract with Herring Networks, which owns OAN, expires in early April.
OAN relied heavily on revenue from DirecTV subscribers. In 2020, an OAN lawyer said in court that if the network’s DirecTV contract ended, “the company would go out of business tomorrow,” Reuters has reported.
In a video in January, Robert Herring Sr., OAN’s founder and chief executive officer, called on viewers to pressure TV providers, like Dish Network Corp. and Charter Communications Inc., better known as Spectrum, to carry the channel.
(Updates with DirecTV declines to comment in fourth paragraph.)
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