11/13/2023 0 Comments One america news fires employeeHe too lives with his third wife, a Russian immigrant, in an 11,000-square-foot Southern California mansion perched on two manicured acres with sprawling views.ĭespite his wealth, Herring shares demographic traits with many Trump base voters. Like his favorite president, Herring runs a lean family business with his sons, Charles and Robert Jr. “He’s just a normal guy who busted his ass, never stopped working, never stopped imagining how it would all turn out.”ĪMERICAN STORY: Robert Herring Sr built a fortune and a TV network, but his businesses also faced an environmental indictment and labor lawsuits, Reuters found. “This man used to drive a concrete truck,” said Las Vegas entrepreneur Dennis Pierce, 60, who views Herring as a father figure. Now, at 80, he sits atop an influential network at the center of a virulent national debate over politics and alternate realities. Herring’s journey is in some regards the American dream: a high school dropout who loathed and later changed his given name, then evolved from a businessman of modest means to a sharp-eyed entrepreneur who saw opportunities others missed. “We have to be out there and be known if we’re going to succeed in this business.” “At least we are making progress, where we’re getting out there,” Herring said. In fact, he said, he appreciates the attention. In a rare interview Wednesday, Herring told Reuters that criticism from former employees and Trump opponents does not faze him. The court files, which include a federal pollution indictment against one of his former companies, also reveal a man prone to alleging conspiracies and engaging in scorched-earth litigation. The records and interviews depict Herring as a hard-driving executive with a knack for prescient timing. Since November, Herring’s OAN has become a leading TV purveyor of false claims that the 2020 election was rigged against former President Donald Trump, helping fuel new voting restrictions and a wave of threats against election officials in several states. A Reuters review of 33 court cases, many not previously reported, and interviews with two dozen associates reveal how the man running a once-obscure news channel made a fortune from scratch and came to play an outsize role in American politics. The episodes provide a window into Herring’s pugnacious style and impatience with government regulation. Last year, a jury ruled that OAN fired a Black producer in retaliation for filing a racial discrimination complaint to Herring. The jury awarded the man $1.1 million. In retaliation, a court judgment reviewed by Reuters shows, Herring fired an employee who told the Federal Bureau of Investigation about illegal pollution at the plant. Two decades before Robert Herring Sr created the far-right TV channel One America News Network, he learned that a circuit board factory he owned was under an FBI investigation.
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