One America News, a right-wing TV network recently touted by President Trump, pulled a conspiracy theory-laden video report about the coronavirus from its YouTube channel Monday.
The network, also known as OAN, had come under fire days earlier due to airing the report, which claimed that “mounting evidence” exists to indicate that the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic is part of a “globalist conspiracy to establish sweeping population control” purportedly involving liberal megadonor George Soros and the nonprofit foundation established by former President Bill Clinton.
Nearly four minutes in length, the report concluded with OAN correspondent Kristian Rouz attempting to make a connection between COVID-19, the contagious disease caused by the coronavirus, and a supposed effort by the “deep state, Democrat cable” and pharmaceutical industry “to derail President Trump’s reelection and force the American people into total submission and control.”
OAN subsequently faced heavy criticism over the report on Twitter where an excerpt of the video was viewed more than a half-million times as of Tuesday.
“This is the nuttiest s—- I’ve ever seen, and I watched Glenn Beck in his prime,” Media Matters for America senior fellow Matthew Gertz tweeted about the clip he shared.
David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, shared the same clip on Twitter and added that he has described OAN as being “Fox News on meth.”
OAN eventually made the report unavailable through its YouTube account by designating the video as private instead of public, CNN first reported Monday. That version had been viewed more than 50,000 times on the platform before OAN made it unavailable, the network previously reported.
A message requesting comment from OAN was not immediately answered Tuesday.
Launched in 2013, OAN made waves last month when the network was stripped of its seat in the White House briefing room after one of its reporters violated social distancing policies put in place as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Trump has since mentioned OAN at least a dozen times on Twitter, including just several days before it aired the “population control” report. Tweeting about the network on May 2, Mr. Trump said OAN is “Great News, not Fake News,” adding: “Everybody should be carrying them!”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.