Last week I wrote about the apology from Salem Media to Mr. Mark Andrews for defaming him as an illegal voter in a film it distributed. Yesterday, the creator of the film, Dinesh D’Souza, issued a statement of apology to Mr. Andrews.

In the film, “2000 Mules,” Mr. Andrews is depicted as a “mule” who harvested fake ballots. In his statement, Mr. D’Souza explained that new information had recently come to light showing that the surveillance videos he used in the film, including the footage that depicted Mr. Andrews, were based on inaccurate information; and that, had he known that, he would’ve made the film differently. (The State of Georgia investigated and determined that Mr. Andrews was voting legally and hadn’t done anything wrong.)

This statement is not really an apology. It’s at best an acknowledgement of wrong, and comes across more like an excuse/explanation. It’s good that Mr. D’Souza is publicly acknowledging that he would’ve done things differently if he had had accurate information. But he doesn’t call it a “mistake,”  and he doesn’t take responsibility for the “inaccurate information.” Instead, Mr. D’Souza blames others for providing him with the information, as if he had no responsibility himself to verify it before basing the film on that misinformation. Instead of acknowledging the harm he caused Mr. Andrews, which Mr. Andrews said included death threats to him and his family, the statement says he is “sorry for any harm he believes he and his family has [sic] suffered.” In other words, he doesn’t believe Mr. Andrews was harmed.

Strangely, he says he still has confidence in the premise of the film, that there was systematic election fraud in the presidential election of 2020. This undermines his assertion that the new information led to a new understanding which prompted the apology. If he really wanted to apologize sincerely, he would’ve omitted this paragraph.

Mr. D’Souza says he’s not apologizing in hopes of settling the lawsuit that Mr. Andrews has filed against him, but rather because “it is the right thing to do.”