OAN staffer fired after he blasts network in NYT

An employee for One America News Network (OAN) was fired for speaking with The New York Times about the conservative-leaning cable outlet, the staffer acknowledged on Monday.

Former producer Marty Golingan tweeted “confirmed” in response to a tweet about his firing from Times reporter Rachel Abrams, who quoted him in her story about OAN’s continued amplification of conspiracy theories surrounding former President Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.

Confirmed https://t.co/wymLLR8oYE

— Marty Golingan (@mgolingan1) April 19, 2021

Golingan told The Hill that OAN in a statement that he declined to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) OAN had requested.

“I Was ‘discharged’ this morning about 9 a.m. PST.,” Golingan said. [OAN CEO] Bobby Herring said it wasn’t working out, and they are able to terminate employment in California ‘at will.’ They paid me out my final checks and tried to get me to sign an NDA. I declined.”

Charles Herring, president of the company that own OAN, declined to comment about Golingan’s firing and instead referred questions to the network’s press office, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Hill.

For her piece, Abrams spoke with 18 current and former OAN staffers, 16 of whom said the network airs reports that are “misleading, inaccurate or untrue.”

Golingan told Abrams he at first thought OAN was “scrappy” when he joined it, but that opinion changed as time went by.

“The majority of people did not believe the voter fraud claims being run on the air,” he told Abrams talking about his coworkers. 

Golingan said he was taken aback when he saw a picture of the Jan. 6 insurrection showing a flag with the OAN logo on it; “I was like, OK, that’s not good. That’s what happens when people listen to us.”

OAN waited much longer than Fox News and Newsmax — two other cable networks popular with conservative viewers — to call the election for President Biden.

In December, OAN CEO Robert Herring tweeted that “our investigations indicate there was fraud in voting” so the network decided not to recognize Biden’s victory over former President Trump until Jan. 6.

One America News will not recognize Biden as the President-elect as all of our investigations indicate there was fraud in voting.

There will be no decision until Jan. 6, 2021. @OANN

— Robert Herring (@RobHerring) December 16, 2020

—Updated at 6:45 p.m.