Bye-bye Batshit: DirecTV Gives Craziest of Cray-Cray Networks OANN the Boot

Sometimes batshit crazy is just batshit crazy. There’s no saving batshit crazy from itself, so all that remains is to distance yourself from the crazy of others before it consumes you.

If that sounds like relationship advice for those entangled with folks who have serious mental health and accountability issues, it’s because that’s how we imagine the execs at DirecTV finally decided to break things off with the most deranged channel it delivers to its customers, deciding to finally stop carrying One America News Network on its system.

From Reuters

The largest satellite provider in the United States said late Friday it will drop One America News, a move that could financially cripple the rightwing TV network known for fueling conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

The announcement by DirecTV, which is 70% owned by AT&T, comes three months after a Reuters investigation revealed that OAN’s founder testified that AT&T inspired him to create the network. Court testimony also showed that OAN receives nearly all of its revenue from DirecTV.

That last part is important, although DirecTV is finally dumping OANN, it’s pretty much the reason OANN exists in the first place. DirecTV’s majority owner is AT&T, and OANN founder Robert Herring Sr. once testified in court that the idea for his network came from AT&T execs. Because pretty much no brand in its right mind would buy ads next to its content, most of OANN’s revenue comes from fees DirecTV charges to carry the channel–even though the network’s viewership numbers are somewhere between trash and dumpster fire.

Basically, DirecTV, like every enabler who eventually sees their enablee turn on them, is now ready to cut and run.

If you’re wondering why all of this matters, keep in mind there’s nothing newsy about OANN. If cable news exists on a spectrum from MSNBC’s lefty personalities to Fox News’ blatant right-wing propagandizing, OANN rates “Holy hell, how is anybody Trump crazy enough to sit and watch this for more than 45 seconds.”

It’s nearly impossible to go an entire minute watching OANN without hearing that illegal aliens from Mars stuffed ballot boxes to help Joe Biden take the White House so they could infect everyone on Earth with an otherworldly disease disguised as a Covid vaccine. That’s not real, but it’s also not that far off from OANN’s 24-hour loop of lies and conspiracy theories.