OAN's shady involvement with a conspiracy theory-based Arizona election "audit"

[Nevilledog]

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Bobby Lewis
@revrrlewis
I took a look at One America News' deep & unethical involvement in the Maricopa County, AZ election audit. Two OAN reporters are also raising money for the audit, with help from the network, as they try to spread this nonsense to other states.

OAN’s shady involvement with a conspiracy theory-based Arizona election “audit”
mediamatters.org
10:12 AM · May 5, 2021

https://www.mediamatters.org/one-america-news-network/oans-shady-involvement-conspiracy-theory-based-arizona-election-audit

After right-wing media spent months raising conspiracy theories and posing already-answered questions about the 2020 election, the Arizona Senate ordered a nonbinding, supposedly nonpartisan “audit” of Maricopa County’s ballots, which were long ago certified by the state Supreme Court. And the pro-Trump conspiracy theory channel One America News is unusually involved in the process.

OAN’s involvement in this conspiracy theory-fueled audit is deep and unethical. For one thing, instead of allowing multiple networks to air the audit process directly, the Arizona Senate is letting OAN run an exclusive livestream of nine cameras set up in the facility. Additionally, one of OAN’s main audit reporters is helping funding the operation.

Arizona’s former Secretary of State Ken Bennett, also the Senate’s liaison to the audit and an occasional OAN guest, said the network “offered to do the livestream and make it available to everyone.” Journalists attempting to report on the audit said that they were forced to participate as election observers and couldn’t take photos, videos, or even notes with pen and paper, though the auditors eventually allowed pool reports. However, OAN and other far-right outlets, like Gateway Pundit, enjoy “unfettered access” that legitimate outlets do not.

About $150,000 of the cost of the audit was raised by Voices & Votes, a 501(c)4 led by OAN's Christina Bobb, who also volunteered for Trump’s post-election legal team while she was an OAN host and previously worked on border control policy for his administration. (Another $150,000 was paid by the Arizona Senate, and millions more were paid by an array of right-wing groups and figures, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.) Bobb, who hosted an OAN special accusing the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors of “cover[ing] up the Arizona election heist,” also uses her reports on the audit and her weekly show to solicit donations for Voices & Votes.

*snip*

[PSPS]

1. Isn't OAN's financing mostly from russia?

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Well, It Isn't From Them!

They don't have the cash flow.
Revenues do not exceed production costs (and from what I've seen on DU, they aren't spending money on world class production).
So, the whole operation is being funded by somebody, including this fishing expedition in Arizona.

[SergeStorms]

2. OAN. The channel for those who think....

FOX is too liberal. "If you're an insurectionist, you're watching OAN."

[SheltieLover]

3. Why is this "audit" even being allowed legally?

[crickets]

5. I keep wondering the same thing. It's a farce. nt