DIRECTV dropping OANN?

To All. This is the actual letter to Mr. Stankey of AT&T from Representatives Eshoo and McNerney.

February 22, 2021
Mr. John T. Stankey, CEO
AT&T, Inc.
208 South Akard Street
Dallas, Texas 75202
Dear Mr. Stankey,
Our country’s public discourse is plagued by misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, 
and lies. These phenomena undergird the radicalization of seditious individuals who committed 
acts of insurrection on January 6th, and it contributes to a growing distrust of public health 
measures necessary to crush the pandemic. We are concerned about the role AT&T plays in 
disseminating misinformation to millions of its U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV subscribers, 
and we write to you today to request additional information about what actions AT&T is taking to 
address these issues.
Nearly half of Americans get their news primarily from TV.1 However, not all TV news sources 
are the same. Some purported news outlets have long been misinformation rumor mills and 
conspiracy theory hotbeds that produce content that leads to real harm.
2 Misinformation on TV 
has led to our current polluted information environment that radicalizes individuals to commit 
seditious acts and rejects public health best practices, among other issues in our public discourse.3
 
Experts have noted that the right-wing media ecosystem is “much more susceptible…to 
disinformation, lies, and half-truths.”4 Right-wing media outlets, like Newsmax, One America 
News Network (OANN), and Fox News all aired misinformation about the November 2020 
elections.5 For example, both Newsmax and OANN “ran incendiary reports” of false information 
following the elections and continue to support “an angry and dangerous subculture [that] will 
continue to operate semi-openly.”6 As a violent mob was breaching the doors of the Capitol, 
Newsmax’s coverage called the scene a “sort of a romantic idea.”7 Fox News, meanwhile, has 
spent years spewing misinformation about American politics.8
These same networks also have been key vectors of spreading misinformation related to the 
pandemic. A media watchdog found over 250 cases of COVID-19 misinformation on Fox News 
in just one five-day period,
9
and economists demonstrated that Fox News had a demonstrable 
impact on non-compliance with public health guidelines.10 One online platform suspended and 
demonetized OANN’s channel online because it was spreading COVID-19 misinformation.11
Newsmax has amplified allegations that members of the Chinese Communist Party helped to 
develop the COVID-19 vaccine.12
Sadly, these facts are not new. One popular television show aired a segment about OANN last 
April that included a dire warning: “the kind of misinformation [OANN] is spewing right now 
could end up getting people killed.”13
Yet, to our knowledge, the cable, satellite, and over-the-top companies that disseminate these 
media outlets to American viewers have done nothing in response to the misinformation aired by 
these outlets.
14 AT&T currently carries Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse, DirecTV, 
and AT&T TV.
15 As a company that serves 17 million Americans,16 AT&T plays a major role in
the spread of dangerous misinformation that enabled the insurrection of January 6th and hinders 
our public health response to the current pandemic. 
It is for these reasons we ask that you provide us with responses to the following questions about 
AT&T’s policies toward content carried on U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV by March 8, 2021:
1. What moral or ethical principles (including those related to journalistic integrity, 
violence, medical information, and public health) do you apply in deciding which 
channels to carry or when to take adverse actions against a channel? 
2. Do you require, through contracts or otherwise, that the channels you carry abide by any 
content guidelines? If so, please provide a copy of the guidelines.
3. How many of your subscribers tuned in to Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse, 
DirecTV, and AT&T TV for each of the four weeks preceding the November 3, 2020 
elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol? Please specify the number of 
subscribers that tuned in to each channel.
4. What steps did you take prior to, on, and following the November 3, 2020 elections and 
the January 6, 2021 attacks to monitor, respond to, and reduce the spread of 
disinformation, including encouragement or incitement of violence by channels your 
company disseminates to millions of Americans? Please describe each step that you took 
and when it was taken.
5. Have you taken any adverse actions against a channel, including Fox News, Newsmax, 
and OANN, for using your platform to disseminate disinformation related directly or 
indirectly to the November 3, 2020 elections, the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, or 
COVID-19 misinformation? If yes, please describe each action, when it was taken, and 
the parties involved. 
6. Have you ever taken any actions against a channel for using your platform to disseminate 
any disinformation? If yes, please describe each action and when it was taken.
7. Are you planning to continue carrying Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse, 
DirecTV, and AT&T TV both now and beyond any contract renewal date? If so, why?
Most gratefully,
______________________
Anna G. Eshoo
Member of Congress
______________________
Jerry McNerney
Member of Congress
1 Amy Mitchell et al., “Americans Who Mainly Get Their News on Social Media Are Less Engaged, Less 
Knowledgeable” (Pew Research Center, July 30, 2020), https://www.journalism.org/2020/07/30/americans-
who-mainly-get-their-news-on-social-media-are-less-engaged-less-knowledgeable/.
2 Bill Keveney and Maria Puente, “How (Edited per community guidelines) Media Stoked Baseless Election-Fraud Claims That 
Motivated DC Rioters,” USA Today, January 11, 2021,https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/01/11/dc-riots-how-newsmax-oan-(Edited per community guidelines)-
outlets-fueled-mob/6589298002/; Jason Mittell, “America’s Fake News Problem Predates Facebook,” Vox, 
November 21, 2016, https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/11/21/13682574/fake-news-facebook-fox-news-
(Edited per community guidelines)-radio.
3 Karen Attiah, “The Media Had a Role to Play in the Rise of Trump. It’s Time to Hold Ourselves 
Accountable.,” Washington Post, January 20, 2021, 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/20/media-had-role-play-rise-trump-its-time-hold-
ourselves-accountable/; Christopher Ingraham, “New Research Explores How (Edited per community guidelines) Media 
Misinformation May Have Intensified the Severity of the Pandemic,” Washington Post, June 25, 2020, 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/25/fox-news-hannity-coronavirus-misinformation/.
4 Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, and Hal Roberts, Network (Edited per community guidelines): Manipulation, Disinformation, and 
Radicalization in American Politics (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018), 13.
5 Renee DiResta and Alex Stamos, “The Insurrection Hiding in Plain Sight,” January 14, 2021, 
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-01-14/insurrection-hiding-plain-sight; Peter 
Kafka, “Fox News Wants Its Viewers Angry Enough to Watch but Not Angry Enough to Riot,” Vox 
Recode, January 7, 2021, https://www.vox.com/recode/22219026/fox-news-riot-capitol-maga-carlson-
hannity.
6 DiResta and Stamos, “The Insurrection Hiding in Plain Sight.”
7
Justin Peters, “How Newsmax Covered the Insurrection It Provoked,” Slate, January 7, 2021, 
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/newsmax-capitol-siege-trump.html.
8 Peter Kafka, “Fox News Wants Its Viewers Angry Enough to Watch but Not Angry Enough to Riot.”
9 Rob Savillo, “Fox News Pushed Coronavirus Misinformation 253 Times in Just Five Days” (Media 
Matters for America, July 16, 2020), https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-
pushed-coronavirus-misinformation-253-times-just-five-days.
10 Andrey Simonov et al., “The Persuasive Effect of Fox News: Non-Compliance with Social Distancing 
During the Covid-19 Pandemic” (National Bureau of Economic Research, May 25, 2020), 
https://doi.org/10.3386/w27237.
11 Ashley Gold, “YouTube Temporarily Suspends, Demonetizes OANN,” Axios, November 24, 2020, 
https://www.axios.com/youtube-temporarily-suspends-demonetizes-oann-420e8ea9-66c1-4eab-9754-
6e3b708483c9.html.
12 Elizabeth Dwoskin and Josh Dawsey, “The Trump Administration Wants to Take Credit for a Covid
Vaccine. Trump Supporters Are Undermining It.,” Washington Post, December 24, 2020, 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/24/trump-vaccine-misinformation/.
13 “OAN,” Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO, April 5, 2020), https://www.hbo.com/last-week-
tonight-with-john-oliver/2020/127-episode-186.
14 Oliver Darcy, “Analysis: TV Providers Should Not Escape Scrutiny for Distributing Disinformation,” 
CNN, January 8, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/08/media/tv-providers-disinfo-reliable-
sources/index.html.
15
“U-verse Channel Lineup,” (AT&T, March 2020), 
https://www.att.com/idpassets/pdfs/channel_lineups/Uverse_Channel_Lineup.pdf; “DirectvPackages & 
Channel Lineup,” (AT&T, accessed February 21, 2021), 
https://www.att.com/idpassets/pdfs/channel_lineups/Uverse_Channel_Lineup.pdf; “AT&T TV Channel 
Lineup,” (AT&T, accessed February 21, 2021) https://www.att.com/channels/att-tv/?edsp=true.
16
“Financial and Operational Trends (4Q 2020),” (AT&T, accessed February 21, 2021), 8, 
https://investors.att.com/~/media/Files/A/ATT-IR/financial-reports/quarterly-earnings/2020/q4-
2020/4Q20_Trending_Schedule.pdf.