Gabriel Sherman is reporting that Donald Trump Jr. and a Dallas family are buying a major stake in One America News Network.
Trump's family loves the idea of acquiring a station to turn into Trump TV. It's obvious Fox isn't meeting the demands of Orange Julius.
Sherman reports that Trump believes he is the only reason Fox News's ratings are high. He just can't handle the network's few Democratic voices that counter their promoting his presidency 24 hours a day.
According to sources, an investor group aligned with his son Don Jr. and the Dallas-based Hicks family has acquired a major stake in One America News Network, the fledgling conservative cable-news channel that features hosts like Jack Posobiec, a chief promoter of the Pizzagate conspiracy. “[RNC co-chair] Tommy Hicks and Don Jr. have been looking to buy a station for Trump TV,” said one source briefed on the talks. “This is all about building a Fox competitor. Trump is really aiming to take down Fox,” the person briefed on the deal told me. (A person close to Hicks said he resigned his position from the family business when he joined the RNC and isn’t involved in the OANN deal).
Trump is as thin-skinned a man as we've ever seen in public office. Now I understand why he's been vilifying Fox News to his supporters on a constant basis, and glorifying OANN.
As the deal has been moving forward, Trump has been promoting OANN by calling on OANN reporters at White House briefings and tweeting favorably about the network’s coverage. Over the weekend, he tweeted that AT&T is expanding OANN’s distribution.
He's been trying to set his MAGA fans up to move over to a media outlet that is filled with conspiracy theorists and wackos.
If Trump loses the election, then he'll have an outlet to put on his grievance politics 24 hours a day, but he still needs Sean Hannity to crossover and I doubt OANN has the money to get him to do that.
If any media corporate transaction should be nullified by the FCC, it's this one.
We can't have a sitting president's family acquire a major presence in a media network whose only function will be to promote and glorify that sitting president.
