Robert Herring (businessman)

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Robert Herring
Born
Alson Shelby Herring

1941 (age 82–83)
Louisiana, U.S.
Known forFounder of Herring Networks
Children4[1]

Robert Shelby Herring Sr. (born 1941) is an American businessman who founded Herring Networks, a media company that launched and currently owns AWE and One America News Network.[2][3]

Early life and education[edit]

Herring was born Alson Shelby Herring in a single-room house in northeastern Louisiana in 1941.[1] The family moved to a farm near Bakersfield, California, in 1948, and later moved near Los Angeles. Herring's father died when he was a teenager; he dropped out of high school and worked to support his family. He would eventually earn his GED.[1]

Perceiving his given first name Alson to sound too feminine, Herring called himself Robert or Bob and legally changed his name to Robert in 2005.[1]

Career[edit]

Herring initially worked as a chauffeur and owned several pet shops. In 1972, he acquired a local circuit board factory and renamed it Industrial Circuits. In 1981, he hired Michael Reagan, son of then-President Ronald Reagan, as a salesman at Industrial Circuits.[1] Herring sold Industrial Circuits to Toppan Printing in 1988 for $52 million.[4][1]

In 1989, Herring created another circuit board company, Herco Technology, with his sons Charles and Robert Jr. as co-owners. In 1994, a Herco employee reported to his supervisors that the facility in San Diego County was illegally flushing copper, prompting an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In 1995, Herring fired the employee, who sued Herco for retaliation and was awarded $78,400 in damages. In November 1997, Herco pleaded guilty to one count of pollution and agreed to pay a criminal fine of $170,000, following a report by a resident in June. For the next three years, the company received pollution violation notices for releasing copper, silver and cyanide into the environment.[1]

In 2000, the Herrings sold the company to Teradyne for $122 million.[1][5] After Teradyne's stock fell by about half in the next year, the Herrings sued the company, alleging that Teradyne executives had misled them during the negotiations. Teradyne denied any wrongdoing, saying that it had properly disclosed its finances before the deal and that market conditions had shifted. The Herrings lost the lawsuit.[1]

In 2003, Herring founded Herring Networks, a media network based in San Diego.[6] In 2004, Herring launched the cable channel Wealth TV (now AWE).[7] In 2013, the network launched One America News Network, a far-right[21] cable channel known for its pro-Donald Trump[31] coverage.[3][32][33][34]

Political activities[edit]

Though Herring has been a conservative since the 1970s, he has occasionally donated to Democrats, including $4,600 to Hillary Clinton in 2007. Herring said under oath that he once voted for Barack Obama for President.[1][2] The majority of his family's $500,000 in contributions has gone to Republicans.[1]

In 2004, Herring donated $15,000 to help rescue a university talk by left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore after the university cut funding, citing free speech principles.[1]

In 2005, Herring offered $1 million to the husband in the Terri Schiavo case to cede custody of Terri to her parents.[35][3][2]

Personal life[edit]

Herring married his first wife when he was 18; they had four children by the time Herring was 24. They divorced in 1977. Herring divorced his second wife in 1997.[1] He married his third wife, a Russian national, in 2000.[1][2] He lives in San Diego.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Shiffman, John (October 7, 2021). "The tech entrepreneur who founded Trump's go-to TV news network". Reuters. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d Fisher, Marc (July 5, 2017). "An inside look at One America News, the insurgent TV network taking 'pro-Trump' to new heights". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Yu, Roger (March 14, 2013). "Herring to launch conservative news channel". USA Today. Archived from the original on August 1, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
  4. ^ "Maker of Circuit Boards Plugs Back In". Los Angeles Times. August 8, 1989. Archived from the original on April 6, 2020. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
  5. ^ "Teradyne Form 10-Q". November 15, 2000. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  6. ^ "Herring Networks Inc - Company Profile and News". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on February 2, 2022. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  7. ^ Smith, David (June 15, 2019). "Trump has a new favourite news network – and it's more rightwing than Fox". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 15, 2019. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  8. ^ Guglielmi, Giorgia (October 28, 2020). "The next-generation bots interfering with the US election". Nature. 587 (7832): 21. Bibcode:2020Natur.587...21G. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-03034-5. PMID 33116324.
  9. ^ Rubin, Olivia; Reevell, Patrick; Bruggeman, Lucien (December 5, 2019). "Giuliani in Ukraine with conservative news outlet in effort to discredit impeachment probe". ABC News. Archived from the original on February 28, 2020.
  10. ^ Lederman, Josh (December 23, 2019). "Inside Giuliani's new push to flip the script on Trump's impeachment". NBC News. Archived from the original on February 26, 2020. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
  11. ^ Darcy, Oliver (May 8, 2020). "Meet OAN, the little-watched right-wing news channel that Trump keeps promoting". CNN. Archived from the original on May 8, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  12. ^ Baragona, Justin (December 26, 2019). "The Year of Batshit Crazy at OAN, Trump's New Favorite Cable-News Channel". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on June 3, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  13. ^ Ecarma, Caleb (April 2, 2020). "Trump's Other Favorite Propaganda Outlet Uninvited From Press Briefings". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on April 14, 2020. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  14. ^ Newman, Jared (June 10, 2020). "Roku is heavily promoting OANN, Trump's latest source for conspiracies". Fast Company. Archived from the original on June 15, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  15. ^ "Gundy's OAN Support Angers Star Oklahoma St RB Chuba Hubbard". Associated Press. June 16, 2020. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020 – via U.S. News & World Report.
  16. ^ Giambalvo, Emily; Bieler, Des (June 16, 2020). "Mike Gundy apologizes, says he was 'disgusted' with OAN views on Black Lives Matter". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  17. ^ Scott, Mark (May 24, 2020). "American nationalists' European vacation". Politico Europe. Archived from the original on June 19, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  18. ^ Mackey, Robert (June 16, 2020). "Trump's New Favorite Channel, OAN, Keeps Lying About Buffalo Protester Assaulted by Police". The Intercept. Archived from the original on June 18, 2020. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  19. ^ "The battle in miniature". The Economist. October 10, 2020. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on October 8, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  20. ^ Jones, Tom (March 20, 2020). "President Trump's press conference calls out two enemies: coronavirus and the media". Poynter Institute. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  21. ^ [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]
  22. ^ Santis, Esteban Leonardo (July 31, 2020). "From the leader's lips, to the public's ears: The state of exception, administrative evil, and the enemy in President Trump's rhetoric during COVID-19". Administrative Theory & Praxis. 42 (4). Taylor & Francis: 7–8. doi:10.1080/10841806.2020.1798693.
  23. ^ McCormick, Andrew (May 27, 2020). "One America News was desperate for Trump's approval. Here's how it got it". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on October 19, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  24. ^ Walt, Stephen M. (September 8, 2020). "10 Ways Trump Is Becoming a Dictator, Election Edition". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on October 10, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  25. ^ Baker, Peter (August 30, 2020). "Trump Embraces Fringe Theories on Protests and the Coronavirus". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 30, 2020. Retrieved August 30, 2020.
  26. ^ Darcy, Oliver (May 8, 2020). "Meet OAN, the little-watched right-wing news channel that Trump keeps promoting". CNN. Archived from the original on May 8, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  27. ^ "The Unhappy Liberals Inside Trump's Favorite Network". POLITICO. June 18, 2020. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 30, 2020.
  28. ^ Breland, Ali. "Meet the propagandists and conspiracy theorists behind OAN". Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  29. ^ Mullin, Benjamin; FitzGerald, Drew (January 15, 2022). "DirecTV to Drop OAN Conservative News Channel". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on January 17, 2022. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  30. ^ Butler, Jack (July 23, 2020). "Don't Watch One America News Network". National Review. Archived from the original on October 11, 2021. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  31. ^ [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]
  32. ^ Porter, Tom. "A right-wing network beloved by Trump has been banned from White House briefings for violating social-distancing restrictions". Business Insider. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
  33. ^ Raymond, Adam K. (May 28, 2019). "Miffed at Fox News, Trump Flirts With an Even More Fawning News Network". Intelligencer. Archived from the original on April 6, 2020. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
  34. ^ "One America News counts Trump as a fan. But the San Diego channel is fighting for millions more viewers". San Diego Union-Tribune. September 27, 2019. Archived from the original on April 29, 2020. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
  35. ^ "Schiavo's husband rejects $1 million to bow out". NBC News. Associated Press. March 10, 2005. Archived from the original on October 6, 2021. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
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