OAN forced to clear the names of Georgia election officials it smeared as part of lawsuit settlement
As part of a legal settlement with Georgia election workers who were falsely accused of vote tampering in the 2020 presidential election, far-right conservative cable network OAN has issued an apology and admitted that there was “no widespread voter fraud” that denied Donald Trump a second term in office.
According to the Daily Beast's William Villaincourt, the mea culpa was delivered in a pre-recorded 30-second segment broadcast on Monday.
The year 2022 has not been kind to the San Diego-based conservative outlet which previously saw its profile raised when the former president touted their reporting after he had a falling out with Fox News.
OAN saw its reach seriously diminished when it was dropped by some providers including DirecTV in April. At that time, the New York Post reported, "The cable channel had a good run during the Donald Trump presidency, where it shamelessly promoted the 45th president’s agenda. Trump, in turn, appeared on OAN and promoted it on social media. The conspiracy-pushing outlet remains the target of lawsuits filed by two voting-technologies companies seeking billions of dollars in damages over OAN’s coverage of alleged voting- machine irregularities."
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Those conspiracy rumors reported as facts by the network's hosts, are at the root of the latest settlement.
According to the Beast, the new segment "notes that an investigation by state officials into unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud made by ex-President Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani turned up nothing."
"The results of this investigation indicate that Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss did not engage in ballot fraud or criminal misconduct,” a narrator states in the OAN statement.
“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 segment's narrator continues.
"Freeman and her daughter, Moss, say they were harassed online and in person after baseless rumors began circulating online, due in part to content published by the conspiracy website The Gateway Pundit, which the pair also sued," Vallaincourt added.
You can read more here and watch the pre-recorded clip below or at this link.
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