Topic: Newsmax
As we've detailed, David Patten was Newsmax's foremost promoter of the discredited idea that Al Franken was committing vote fraud in the aftermath of the Minnesota Senate election. Even though no less than an authority than the Minnesota Supreme Court declared Franken to the fair-and-square winner, Patten is still pushing this discredited claim.
A Jan. 18 Newsmax article by Patten starts by asserting: "The specter of Minnesota's bitterly contested election contest between Al Franken and Norm Coleman now hangs over Tuesday's special election in Massachusetts, with Republicans and conservative pundits warning that anything less than a clear-cut victory for GOP challenger Scott Brown over Democrat Martha Coakley risks a 'stolen election.'" patten goes on to quote NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard -- who has his own notable record of fabulism -- baselessly asserting that Democrats "obviously stole the Franken seat several months ago."
That's simply not true. As Media Matters details, the Minnesota Supreme Court stated that "[n]o claim of fraud in the election or during the recount was made by either" Franken or Coleman . Further, numerous experts attest to the fact there there was, in the words of one expert, a "lack of crookedness in the election."
