CNN
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Salem Media Group, the right-wing discuss radio community proprietor, issued a public apology and stated it will cease distributing a discredited 2020 election conspiracy idea movie after a Georgia man wrongly accused of voter fraud sued the corporate for defamation.
The Georgia man, Mark Andrews, said in his 2022 lawsuit that “2000 Mules,” a movie and ebook by far-right activist Dinesh D’Souza contained a string of bogus claims in regards to the 2020 election, resulting in threats of violence in opposition to him and his household.
Andrews stated the movie, which has been repeatedly promoted by Donald Trump and broadly circulated in right-wing media as supposed proof that the 2020 election was stolen, had severely broken his repute.
“It was by no means our intent that the publication of the 2000 Mules movie and ebook would hurt Mr. Andrews,” Salem stated in a Friday statement. “We apologize for the harm the inclusion of Mr. Andrews’ picture within the film, ebook, and promotional supplies have brought on Mr. Andrews and his household.”
“We now have eliminated the movie from Salem’s platforms, and there will likely be no future distribution of the movie or the ebook by Salem,” the right-wing firm added.
The apology from Salem got here as half of a bigger settlement to the lawsuit filed by Andrews. A consultant for Shield Democracy, a nonprofit group that sued Salem on behalf of Andrews, didn’t touch upon the phrases of the settlement. Neither did a consultant for Salem.
Salem operates a nationwide discuss radio community, distributing the packages of a number of outstanding pro-Trump personalities comparable to Charlie Kirk and Sebastian Gorka, to greater than 2,700 associates. It additionally owns dozens of Christian-format radio stations and the right-wing political web site Townhall.
Within the “2000 Mules” movie, Andrews was featured on video together with his face blurred depositing his poll, together with these belonging to his household, right into a drop field in what the movie purported was a so-called “mule” operation.
“What you might be seeing is against the law,” a voiceover from D’Souza declared. “These are fraudulent votes.”
Salem stated in its Friday assertion that it “relied on representations” that D’Souza had made.
“We now have realized that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has cleared Mr. Andrews of unlawful voting exercise in reference to the occasion depicted in 2000 Mules,” the corporate stated.
Within the aftermath of the 2020 election, Trump’s media allies promoted false claims that the election had been stolen by then-candidate Joe Biden. Whereas the claims had been false, polls have indicated that the lies had been efficient, convincing the vast majority of the Republican Celebration that Biden’s election was illegitimate.
These election lies, nevertheless, have led to authorized penalties for shops that promoted the claims, with right-wing media corporations going through a slew of expensive lawsuits stemming from their protection of the 2020 election. Final month, the pro-Trump community One America Information settled a lawsuit introduced by voting know-how firm Smartmatic over the outlet’s promotion of lies in regards to the 2020 election. And final 12 months, Fox Information settled a historic $787 million defamation lawsuit filed by election firm Dominion Voting Techniques.