The Wall Street Journal called it a “belated apology” and it was. This month, Salem Media, a major US-based conservative and christian radio network of over 100 radio stations and claims 13 million listeners, finally pulled the film 2000 Mules, which alleged it had documented proof that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. The 2000 mules were people the movie claimed had rigged the ballot.
Salem talk radio features Christian identities like Eric Metaxas and Mike Gallagher, as well as the well-known Jewish commentator Denis Prager.
One alleged mule was a Georgia man, Mark Andrews, shown putting five ballots in a drop box in an Atlanta suburb. While he does this, the movie producer Dinesh D’Souza says in a voiceover, “What you are seeing is a crime,” according to a Roys Report story. Then he says, “These are fraudulent votes.”
“We have learned that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has cleared Mr. Andrews of illegal voting activity in connection with the event depicted in 2000 Mules, Salem media said in a statement.
“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.”
The Wall Street Journal, a conservative paper owned by Newscorp, castigated Salem in its editorial “State investigators cleared [Andrews] at a public meeting in May 2022, which was reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That was three days before ‘2000 Mules’ hit movie theaters. Mr Andrews’s legal complaints, filed later that year, say the defendants subsequently published a ‘2000 Mules’ companion book, even after his attorney sent letters to them ‘putting them on notice of the falsity of their statements.’”
Image: 200 Mules on Amazon