If you’re not familiar with One America News Network (OAN), John Oliver is here to educate you (and warn you) about the far-right cable news channel that’s having a “love affair” with President Donald Trump amid the coronavirus pandemic, and it’s not just because of their “hard-right talking points” or the fact they’ve “actively given airtime to conspiracy theories.”
“The whole selling point for OAN is that they are Fox News with even less shame and even fewer scruples,” Oliver said on Sunday’s edition of “Last Week Tonight.” “In fact, they’re so fragrantly smitten with Trump that at one point their network account actually tweeted: ‘President Trump recently gave a speech, thanking his supports in the media. Not a single mention of One America News — one of his GREATEST supporters… @OANN calls bulls–t…’ And that is just pathetically thirsty. They shift from fawning praise to sullen fury if people stop complimenting them for a single second. Although, when you put it like that, you do kind of get what OAN and the president see in each other.”
Oliver says he knows “it is easy to dismiss OAN as just a stupid, little-watched, borderline self-parody” but “the problem is, if we’re learning one thing right now, it’s that toxic things that start small can get big fast and it’s dangerous to ignore them. And right now, the president is putting a lot of energy into boosting OAN’s profile.”
The HBO late-night host then rolled footage showing how often Trump is calling on OAN reporters like Chanel Rion in White House briefings for “good” questions and clips of OAN’s Graham Ledger signing off with his catchphrase, “Even when I’m wrong, I’m right.”
“In the best of times, you can laugh at an almost ‘Anchorman’-esque parody of right-wing news. But much like ‘Anchorman 2,’ it’s just not the right time for Ron Burgundy right now,” Oliver said. “OAN’s weird combination of far-right-wing talking points and dirt stupid reporting is incredibly dangerous at a time like this. Graham Ledger has explicitly called for Americans to defy the government’s advice on social distancing.”
He added: “The problem here is, the kind of misinformation OAN is spewing right now could end up getting people killed. And sadly, their message is being actively spread by the White House. So it is more important than ever to be on the lookout for OAN’s bullshit and to make sure that no one that you know is falling for it either.”