New Lincoln Project Ad Burns AT&T to the Ground for Financing OANN

The Lincoln Project released a new one-minute video on Monday blasting telecommunications giant AT&T for being the primary financier of One America News Network – also known as OANN – a right-wing propaganda outlet that frequently disseminates white nationalist talking points and misinformation about COVID-19 and whose brand heavily relies on the daily perpetuation of former President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

The ad’s visuals resemble a commercial for wireless services, however, its clever narration tells the real story:

Friends. Family. The people who make our lives complete. With AT&T, you can reach out to those people to feel the connection too many Americans are missing today. In addition to reliable connections and crystal-clear sound quality, your AT&T plan helps fund One America News Network. OANN is a streaming channel that hires radical, alt-right, white nationalists as hosts, cheers the Capitol attacks, and promotes COVID-19 conspiracy theories! Want more? By keeping your cell service with AT&T you can pay OANN host Pearson Sharp call for mass executions! And with AT&T you’ll be able to keep funding politicians like Texas Governor Greg Abbott pushing radical new laws against voting rights and women’s rights! AT&T: Funding sedition, oppression, and, of course, One America News Network.

The organization tweeted the spot with the caption: “AT&T: Making the connection between sedition, oppression, and white nationalism.”

Watch below:

.@ATT: Making the connection between sedition, oppression, and white nationalism pic.twitter.com/19l8hkMnVZ

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 11, 2021

On Sunday evening’s episode of Last Week Tonight on HBO (which is owned by AT&T), host John Oliver also lit into AT&T for its embrace of racists and treason.

“You’re a terrible company. You do bad things and you make the world worse. Please don’t bother keeping in touch once the merger’s complete, although that really should not be a problem for you,” Oliver said. “You’re AT&T, it’s not like your messages will go through anyway.”