April 6, 2020

If you're a normal, reasonably intelligent person, odds are you've never seen OAN, aka One America Network. And why would you? By comparison, Fox News has all the gravitas of the New York Times.

And as John Oliver points out, we need to pay attention because some really bad things start out small.

"OAN stands for One America News and when you hear the kinds of questions that they ask, you begin to see why Trump calls on them so much.

OAN REPORTER: Mr. President, your approval ratings have been the highest they've ever been as well as the ratings on your handling of the virus if there are some networks that are saying they're debating whether or not to carry these briefings live. Do you think there's a link between the two?

TRUMP: Well I don't know. I know that well that's a nice question. Thank you very much.

"What's that, a nice question -- though I guess it depends on what your definition of what one is. If a nice question is meant to extract any useful information at all, then it wasn't nice but if it's one that makes the president feel happy for a brief instant before that feeling, like all feelings is swallowed up by the unfathomable void that yawns within him," Oliver says.

The segment concludes:

"Look, the problem here is, the kind of misinformation OAN is spewing right now could end up getting people killed and sadly, their message is being actively spread by the White House so it is more important than ever to be on the lookout for OAN's bullshit and to make sure no one that you know is falling for it, either. And I know that just calling it bullshit may seem crude, so for all of those of you who might desire a more eloquent plea, let me offer some language from Chanel Rian's web site. [...]

"These people are not just irresponsible, my friends. They are a bunch of fucking fuckdoodles."

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