Robert Herring (businessman)

Last updated

Robert Herring
Born
Alson Shelby Herring

1941 (age 83–84)
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]

Contents

Early life and education

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

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

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

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]

In September 2024, Herring's legal counsel claimed he has the "medical condition and diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease", while seeking to block his deposition in Dominion Voting Systems' multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against him and his network. [36]

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References

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  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.
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  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.
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  17. ↑ Scott, Mark (May 24, 2020). "American nationalists' European vacation". Politico Europe . Archived from the original on June 19, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
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  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.
  36. ↑ Diego, Ken Stone • Times of San (September 27, 2024). "OAN Founder Robert Herring Sr. Has Alzheimer's Disease, Fights Deposition". Times of San Diego. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
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