Pro-Trump media outlet One America News Network (OAN) put out a legal disclaimer on Monday admitting that a conspiracy theory it peddled about the 2020 election results in Georgia was false.
During a broadcast on Monday evening, OAN host Mike Dinow presented what he called an “updated report from Georgia officials” on their voter fraud investigation, which concluded all the way back in October last year that there was no voter fraud.
The so-called “report” was actually a legal disclaimer from OAN following a defamation lawsuit brought over the right-wing network’s repeated false claim that election workers in Fulton County, Georgia switched votes for then-President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden.
“Georgia officials have concluded that there was no widespread voter fraud by election workers who counted ballots at the State Farm Arena in November 2020,” a voiceover in the disclaimer said. “The results of this investigation indicate that Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss did not engage in ballot fraud or criminal misconduct.”
“A legal matter with this network and the two election workers has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties through a fair and reasonable settlement,” the voiceover added.
Freeman and Moss, who are mother and daughter, sued OAN and ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in December for defamation over the conspiracy theory, which the two election workers (who are Black) said led to an “onslaught of violent and racist threats and harassment” against them. Freeman and Moss are also suing right-wing website Gateway Pundit in a separate suit on similar defamation claims.
The pair agreed to settle with OAN, the terms of which are not publicly available, last month. The agreement doesn’t include Giuliani.
However, OAN’s legal woes that arose from its lies about the 2020 election aren’t over: The outlet is facing a billion-dollar lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, which was the voting machine company repeatedly at the center of MAGAland’s fake conspiracy theories about voter fraud.
Dominion’s lawsuit came after OAN had apparently tried to fend off that lawsuit in advance with a lengthy disclaimer put before MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s clownish “Absolute Proof” movie about the 2020 election:
(Lindell’s being sued by Dominion too).
Reading along waiting for what I knew was coming…
The so-called “report” was actually a legal disclaimer from OAN following a defamation lawsuit brought over the right-wing network’s repeated false claim that election workers in Fulton County, Georgia switched votes for then-President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden.
And there it was. I hope the plaintiffs take them for everything they have or ever will have.
So that’s it? They run one 30 second “disclaimer” and that’s supposed to balance out weeks of anti-election propagandizing? Or are they required to run this disclaimer more than once?
Amazing what happens when you’re under oath and liable for the truthfulness of your statements.
A post of mine from another thread:
["The J6 Committee Hearings are a month away.
I believe that the tsunami of unpleasant actions from the Right (including this particular story**, along with the Alito brief and many more) are serving the purpose of hitting us and forcing us to be less than enthusiastic about those Hearings."]
Tamping down good news like this (thanks, @occamscoin and @rollinnolan) and downplaying them is also in line with the strategy
**the story I am referring to is the Durham one, which is pure propaganda on the Right
It was all just a big misunderstanding. All’s well that ends well. No harm, no foul. Can’t we all just get along? We are all God’s children.