(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Salem Media Group disavows Dinesh D'Souza's Big Lie film and book [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-02 Lost in the hurly-burly over Donald Trump’s conviction is another bit of good news. Two years ago, right-wing provocateur and pseudointellectual Dinesh D’Souza released “2000 Mules,” a film that alleged Trump had a second term stolen from him as a result of a wide-ranging scheme by Democrats to stuff ballot boxes in key swing states. In other words, it was a 90-minute paean to the Big Lie. The film has been widely debunked as one of the latest pieces of conspiracy theory trash from a man with a long history of trafficking in said trash, as has an accompanying book. Late Friday, D’Souza finally got a long-overdue reckoning for his shameless promotion of the Big Lie. Salem Media Group, the Christian conservative media group that distributed the film and book versions of “2000 Mules,” publicly disavowed both publications and announced it was pulling them from distribution. It didn’t come without prodding, however. Salem was all but forced to pulp both the book and film after a man depicted as one of those “mules” took both it and Salem to court. It initially looked like the beginning of the end for “2000 Mules” came when Salem and its then-publishing division, Regnery Publishing, abruptly pulled the book version from publication due to a supposed “publishing error.” Based on changes made when a new version was released in October, however, they came when several nonprofits whom D’Souza named as being involved in election fraud threatened legal action. D’Souza had earlier vowed to reveal the names of the “nonprofit stash houses” who supposedly illegally harvested ballots in 2020. But the real dénouement began in October, when Atlanta resident Mark Andrews, who was depicted in the film, sued Salem and D’Souza for conspiracy to violate his right to vote, defamation, and invasion of privacy. While Andrews’ image was blurred in the film, his image was visible in the trailer and stills. Andrews claimed that he and his family had been the targets of violent threats, and feared being attacked by hardcore Trumpers. This isn’t just an abstract concern. Some of the most Trumpified territory in the nation is just an hour’s drive north of Atlanta, as most Georgia Kossacks know. Several counties in North Georgia—the balliwicks of Andrew Clyde and Marjorie Taylor Greene—gave Trump 70 percent or more of the vote. Andrews was subsequently cleared of wrongdoing; state officials found he had legally dropped off ballots for himself and his family. Fast forward to Friday, when Salem issued a statement stripped across the top of its newsgathering site, Salem News Network, in which it offered an unreserved apology to Andrews’ family and publicly disavowed “2000 Mules.” It was never our intent that the publication of the ‘2000 Mules’ film and book would harm Mr. Andrews. We apologize for the hurt the inclusion of Mr. Andrews' image in the movie, book, and promotional materials have caused Mr. Andrews and his family. We have removed the film from Salem’s platforms, and there will be no future distribution of the film or the book by Salem. Salem claimed that when it greenlighted the film, it believed D’Souza and another defendant in Andrews’ suit, vote-monitoring outfit True the Vote, were telling the truth when they depicted Andrews as a “mule.” Apparently it paid a very high price for its failure to conduct even rudimentary vetting. According to NPR’s Tom Dreisbach—who got his hands on a copy of the original “2000 Mules” book that was in stores before it was recalled, Salem sued its insurer for refusing to pay legal expenses associated with Andrews’ suit. In that suit, Salem disclosed that it has paid a settlement to Andrews. x Also notable: Salem is currently suing their media insurer for allegedly failing to pay for the costs associated with Andrews' "2,000 Mules" lawsuit.https://t.co/zeJ9BrBP8O — Tom Dreisbach (@TomDreisbach) May 31, 2024 x According to a filing in Salem's case against its insurer, Salem settled Andrews' defamation case for a "significant [confidential] amount." pic.twitter.com/fsiu9Qpnkq — Tom Dreisbach (@TomDreisbach) May 31, 2024 The amount may not have been disclosed, but it was certainly more than Salem would have had to spend had it simply taken the time to make sure D’Souza and True The Vote were telling the truth. As egregious as that lapse was, it’s even more so considering that Andrews is a private person. What he endured is a textbook reason why private people have a much lower bar to clear in order to win defamation suits. Had Salem taken this to trial, he could have really drawn blood. This, ladies and gentlemen, is yet another entry in the long list of private people who have taken major elements of the right-wing universe to the cleaners. If you’ll remember, Fox News and Newsmax were all but forced to issue on-air fact-checks of their own smears about Dominion Voting Systems when former Dominion executive Eric Coomer sued them. And all available evidence suggests Fox News fired Tucker Carlson rather than face being sued over his baseless smears against Ray Epps. For that reason, D’Souza’s reaction to this news is rather telling. In the absence of something we haven’t heard or seen, he hasn’t commented on it. If he had an iota of decency in him, if he were even a fraction of the devout Christian conservative he claims to be, he will apologize to Andrews and his family. The thought that he at the very least recklessly put Andrews through this hell, combined with Trump’s brownshirts threatening to doxx jurors, has me so mad right now that when I vote for Joe Biden, it will be all I can do to keep from screaming “Foxtrot Delta Tango!” when I walk into the booth. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/2/2244255/-Salem-Media-Group-disavows-Dinesh-D-Souza-s-Big-Lie-film-and-book?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/