If you work in the news, one of the things you hope never happens is you becoming apart of the news itself. But sometimes, you have to stay true to yourself and your principles, by blowing the whistle. Not going to lie, it really is one of my proudest moments of my life. It felt like a big weight lifted off my shoulders when I did it, and after 4 years, it still feels like my shining moment.
My experience working at One America News Network is not something I go blabbing about whenever I open my mouth. It usually only happens when someone else brings it up and wants to hear the story of what happened. So I figured I recap a bit of my one day viral moment here. I had worked at OAN for the entire Trump Administration from 2016 until after January 6th, 2021. The Captiol Insurrection changed my whole outlook on working there.
It’s a weird feeling watching the other news outlets cover what was quite possibly the darkest day in political history. It was guilt I was feeling. I had helped poison the minds of the people that stormed the Capitol that day. Every other news outlet covered it in a critical fashion. And then I saw a segment on The Daily Show. I saw something I had not seen in other newscasts. It was the Trump mob carrying a giant OAN flag on the way to the Capitol. It was fairly brief, but I once I saw it, it became burned into my brain forever.
I stewed about it for awhile until Rachel Abrams of the New York Times reached out to me about a story she was working on about the producers at OAN. Apparently, she had already spoken to a couple producers there who told her they did not believe the news we were airing. I confirmed what they were saying and later agreed to go on the record. It took some time to make that decision, but after some soul searching, I knew I had to do it.
Rachel’s article came out a few months later and it caused a shitstorm for the company. The next day was Monday and I had to go into work. I produced one show and was marched down to HR to sign termination papers. Rachel contacted me later and I told her they let me go.
What I found funny was by firing me, OAN made the NYT story about itself and not about me, although I was still in the thick of the drama. About a week later the hoopla died down and I was still out of a job. But like I say in my video, I have no regrets.
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