One of Newsmax’s most prominent voices in promoting bogus election fraud conspiracy theories has been columnist Michael Dorstewitz. In a Nov. 16 column, for instance, he uncritically repeated Rudy Giuliani’s claim that voting-tech company Dominion “actually is a company owned by two Venezuelans that’s been in business for about 20 years and been disqualified in so many places it would make your head spin.” That’s not true, and it’s one of the claims Newsmax had to walk back in an attempt to avoid getting sued for defamation by Dominion and another voting tech company, Smartmatic.
Dorstewitz touted in a Nov. 23 column: “Trump-Pence campaign lawyers claim they can prove election fraud and other acts of misconduct on a massive scale. Also, state courts, secretaries of state and election officials made eleventh hour changes to election procedures that constitutionally may only be made by state legislative bodies. Too many people just aren’t buying it.”
In a Jan. 2 column — promoted at one point as the top story on Newsmax’s front page — Dorstewitz wrote:
Each time a member of the big media reports on someone referring to acts of fraud or even irregularities in the Nov. 3 presidential election, they describe them as “baseless claims” or “unproven.”
Such words are included in almost every wire story since election day published by the Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, and others.
Actually, there are many examples of vote fraud that took place during the 2020 election, and serious evidence of voting irregularities relating to the mail-in ballots.
Dorstewitz then cited a bunch of claims, scrupulously ignoring the evidence that most, if not all, of them have been discredited.
On Jan. 4 Dorstewitz touted the Republican attempt to deny Biden from being certified by the Electoral College:
Ever since Republican lawmakers announced they intend to mount an objection to the Electoral College vote when a joint session of Congress meets Wednesday, Democrats and mainstream media have denounced it as undemocratic.
But the caterwauling from the left brings to mind a line from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” that “The lady doth protest too much,” and thus loses all credibility. Are they really that afraid of the truth?
At least a dozen senators and 140 House members are expected to object to the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory as the 46th president.
They’re calling for an electoral commission to go over the results in key states for 10 days before they’re certified.
As he has before, Dorstewitz then attacked Joe Biden:
In addition to evidence the 2020 election may have been rigged, it doesn’t pass the smell test. It doesn’t make sense that Biden, who hasn’t had an original thought in 78 years and 45 days, won the election, despite the fact that:
- His party lost at least 11 House seats
- He lost heavily in the bellwether states of Florida, Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa
- He lost nearly every bellwether county in the country
- He bested Hillary Clinton’s 2016 performance in only a few cities
He offered no evidence to back up his “bellwether county” claim; his claim that Biden largely underperformed Hillary is a lie.
Dorstewitz’s record of dishonesty and fraud doesn’t bode well for Newsmax’s attempt to frame itself as a reasonable alternative to Fox News (not to mention trying to keep from getting sued over publishing said falsehoods).