Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/02/publisher-of-right-wing-2000-mules-film-apologizes-for-its-lies.html
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If Salem Media Group cared in the slightest about truth and accuracy, any due diligence would have barfed a sea of red flags at the start. They knew what they were doing, and who they were working with.
They’re only withdrawing the film after it served its purpose, maybe with lawsuits on the horizon, and issuing this noppology.
True the Vote’s disclaimer is even more laughable.
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Never go full Dinesh or even partial Dinesh
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A more accurate headline would be that the publisher was forced to apologise for its lies. No-one who works with Distorts D’Trutha apologises voluntarily.
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I thought convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza’s name was always supposed to be preceded by “convicted felon.”
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the same salem media group that owns 100 radio stations, and distributes to more than 2000 affiliates?
no. they do not.
( add in clear channel - aka iheartradio - and the far right controls a huge percentage of the airwaves )
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shitty samizdat
@beschizza good one
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He got a Trump pardon, so maybe also add TP after his name?
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I keep saying some deep pocketed Democrats need to buy AM radio stations and flood the rural and commuter airwaves across the country with Democratic propaganda (ie., the truth). Angry misinformed commuters beget angry misinformed voters, and the only one feeding their anger for decades now has been the right. The left needs to educate them as to the genuine reasons to be angry.
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They tried doing the left-wing version of AM radio back in the early 2000s, even got some big names like Al Franken and Rachel Maddow behind it. Ultimately it didn’t really work because progressives will never be as good at unhinged partisan outrage radio as conservatives. I tried listening to it several times and my main reaction was disappointment. I remember thinking “Is this what we’re doing now? Trying to make a progressive version of Limbaugh?”
Luckily there are other media platforms and formats that lend themselves better to thoughtful, well-researched news commentary. That’s why right-wingers never succeeded in making their own versions of The Daily Show or Last Week Tonight.
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As a regular listener of Al Franken’s podcast, I was vaguely aware of Air America (my commuter days ended in the late 1990s). You may be right about its effectiveness, but reading your link makes me think it was a victim of mismanagement and the recession more than a lack of listeners or lackluster content. I currently also listen to a lot of Crooked Media/Pod Save America content on YouTube, and think it could be well-adapted to AM radio to counter the relentless onslaught of hate and stupidity barfed out over the airwaves by the right.
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One nice thing about podcasts over live talk radio is that the production schedule allows for research and nuance that is rarely exhibited in the kind of shows that dominate the AM dial. People like Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity could just open a newspaper or check a news feed every morning, spend five minutes skimming headlines and then fill a few hours of airtime bloviating about their terrible take on the day’s events. A well-produced, responsibly researched podcast is never going to crank out that many hours of content each day on a comparable budget, so the fact-free outrage farmers have an inherent advantage in that format.
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Also, indepth podcasts are less likely to end up being “two minutes of hate” nonsense which don’t help anything. I’d much rather get thought commentary that focuses on the roots of issues and helps us understand the why than daily blasts of just angry, pointless bloviating… That’s largely why I rarely click on the left-wing youtubes that are like “d0n4lD tr0mP sH1tz seLf in Co4rt”!!! I care about our democracy, not his lack of continence.
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Right; another consequence of the AM radio format. If your audience is primarily comprised of commuters who may tune in (or out) at any point in the program you have to prioritize rapid engagement over substance. No time for a John-Oliver-style deep dive even if you have the production resources available; you gotta hook your listeners before they change stations and the easiest way to do that is to get them angry.
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The medium is the message, etc, etc… 
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That was the feeling I had. There are left wing channels that mimic right wing outrage factory type sites, but it feels like most of my colleagues on the left can’t stand that sort of content and the numbers reflect that. At the same time, you have, like, The Majority Report, which sounds a lot like what my colleagues say they wish political discourse sounded like, but they find it boring when they have hour long interviews with academics about housing policy solutions…
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Dinesh D’Felon.
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One of the hosts from Air America is pretty active on YouTube now. Sam Seder, who co-hosted a show on Air America with Janeane Garofalo, runs a channel called the Majority Report. It’s pretty good. Unlike a lot of other once liberal comedians who have drifted to the right, he seems to keep moving further left. But yeah, that kind of content just doesn’t seem to attract the same kind of following as the right wing stuff. He does have more subscribers than Tim Pool, though.
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