Cable Company Offers Anti-Obama Film To Customers For Free In Ohio

A major regional cable provider is offering a notorious anti-Obama movie to all its subscribers for free.

Armstrong Cable operates in six states, including Pennsylvania and the critical swing state of Ohio. The move to make the highly partisan movie against President Barack Obama available to voters comes just days after Armstrong’s Chairman of the Board donated tens of thousands of dollars to the campaign of Republican challenger Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee.

The film, “2016: Obama’s America,” has been widely panned by fact checkers. Written and narrated by conservative author Dinesh D’Souza, it claims Obama’s “worldview…was largely shaped by the anti-colonialist, anti-white and anti-Christian politics of Obama’s supposedly radical Kenyan father,” who was largely absent from his life. The point of the movie, according to a review in the Washington Post, is to convince viewers “that Obama hates America.” It was panned as “fear mongering of the worst kind.”

Armstrong recently started offering the movie for free, on demand, to all of its subscribers.

An Armstrong executive confirmed to the Pittsburgh City Paper that “this is the first time the cable provider has offered such a deal for a recently released feature film.”

Armstrong claims it will offer a free recently released film each month to encourage use of its premium on-demand offerings. But the company acknowledges no other recent releases are currently available without charge.

On September 21, just days before the promotion began, Armstrong Chairman of the Board Jay Sedwick donated the maximum $5,000 to Mitt Romney’s campaign and an additional $25,000 to the RNC.

Armstrong cable is available in over 50 cities and towns in 10 Ohio counties. Analysts believe the outcome in Ohio may determine the outcome of the election. Most current polls in the state are within the margin of error.

Conservatives have attacked the mainstream media for “refusing” coverage, but the documentary is also being shown at Evangelical Christian churches in battleground states. The movie became available on DVD and for rental across the U.S. last week with Lionsgate distributing.

D’ Souza is no longer promoting the book in person after resigning his presidency at the evangelical King’s College in New York City after it was revealed that he had been traveling with a woman who was not his wife.

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top