00:00Yup! Turns out AT&T has been up to some sh**t.
00:04John Oliver once again took aim at business daddy AT&T on Sunday's episode of HBO's Last Week Tonight.
00:10This time he took issue with a Reuters report that surfaced last week revealing that AT&T helped create and fund One America News,
00:17a far right-wing network that has spread conspiracy theories regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the 2020 election.
00:24AT&T is still technically our business daddy, making OAN our business step-sibling and not in a hot way.
00:31According to Reuters, which reviewed court records, OAN founder and chief executive Robert Herring Sr. testified that AT&T executives were the ones who told him to launch the network.
00:41AT&T also reportedly funded OAN to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
00:46And once the network launched, AT&T carried OAN on U-verse and later on DirecTV.
00:51Oliver later showed an email from AT&T reps in response to Last Week Tonight's request for comment.
00:57AT&T says that no senior executive suggested to Herring that he create another conservative network with the carve-out of senior there being pretty striking.
01:06AT&T also defended carrying OAN despite the quote horrendous content and said in a statement that read,
01:12DirecTV respects the editorial independence of the channels it carries, just as AT&T is committed to providing editorial independence for every WarnerMedia show, including this one, referring to Oliver's show.
01:24That gave Oliver an opening to use that editorial independence to give some constructive feedback for the company, including its current slogan.
01:31AT&T, all the business savvy of Quibi without the courtesy of committing corporate suicide.
01:36And ended by noting that the show's relationship with AT&T isn't good.
01:40You do bad things and you make the world worse.
01:43Please don't bother keeping in touch once the merger's complete, although that really should not be a problem for you.
01:48You're AT&T. It's not like your messages will go through anyway.
01:52For more on this story, head to THR.com.
01:55And for the latest entertainment news and updates, keep watching The Hollywood Reporter News.
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