Via the NYT: ‘2,000 Mules’ Producer Apologizes to Man Depicted Committing Election Fraud.
The conservative media company Salem Media Group has apologized to a Georgia man who was falsely depicted as having committed election fraud in the film “2,000 Mules,” which Salem co-produced and released in 2022.
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Mr. Andrews sued Mr. D’Souza, along with Salem and two individuals associated with the right-wing election-monitoring group True the Vote, for defamation in October 2022. State investigators in Georgia have since found that Mr. Andrews committed no crime and that he had legally deposited the ballots for himself and several members of his family.
“It was never our intent that the publication of the ‘2,000 Mules’ film and book would harm Mr. Andrews,” Salem said in a statement on Friday. “We apologize for the hurt the inclusion of Mr. Andrews’s image in the movie, book and promotional materials have caused Mr. Andrews and his family.”
Salem, one of the largest radio broadcasters in the country, with 115 stations, also syndicates radio and podcast content, operates several websites and publishes a number of conservative Christian-themed magazines. It said on Friday that it had taken “2,000 Mules” off its platforms and that it would no longer distribute the film and the book.
To be sure, the damage has been done as the film has definitely been effective propaganda with some segments of the MAGA community. While I recognize that those persons are going to vote MAGA regardless, I still find it unhealthy for segments of the population to be fed lies and then have their perceptions of reality warped as a result.
This is just the latest in a long string of examples wherein when a person or entity has to actually tell the truth in relationship to some legal proceeding, they have to admit that they were lying about election fraud in 2020.
Hopefully there is justice for Mr. Andrws beyond just an apology and having the book and film out of circulation.
In September, a federal judge in Georgia rejected efforts by defendants to dismiss Mr. Andrews’s defamation case. The case is pending.
