It’s not pathetic and stupid enough that Snopes is gunning for the Babylon Bee; BuzzFeed evidently feels compelled to pitch in on the smear campaign:
The Babylon Bee, a self-proclaimed Christian satire site, accused Snopes of unfairly debunking its articles.
The accusation jump-started a conspiracy theory that fact-checking sites are targeting conservative humor to de-platform right-wing publishers https://t.co/OImjwSmOSE
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) August 1, 2019
A Christian Satire Site Is Pushing A Conspiracy That Fact-Checkers Are Helping Facebook Deplatform Conservatives https://t.co/X5MdskKja1 via @broderick
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) July 31, 2019
A conspiracy, eh?
This Babylon Bee site sounds pretty dangerous. https://t.co/AGdGHTtiaK
— Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) August 1, 2019
We can’t wait to see the evidence. But it looks like we’ll have to. Because there isn’t any:
This piece does not quote anyone making that allegation https://t.co/t9afWJxfIL
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 1, 2019
No, it doesn’t. But it does lump Ben Shapiro in with the “far right”:
According to @broderick, @benshapiro is "far-right" because he made a joke at Snopes' expense. pic.twitter.com/qLbtskMCfV
— [shrug emoji] (@jtLOL) August 1, 2019
Is Ben Shapiro wrong in saying that Snopes has a left-wing agenda? Because they’ve made it pretty clear that they have a left-wing agenda.
And speaking of the “far right,” BuzzFeed’s Ryan Broderick, who wrote the piece, seems to think only the far right cares about Babylon Bee founder Adam Ford’s pushback against Snopes. Broderick writes:
The controversy caught the eye of the far right after the Babylon Bee’s founder, Adam Ford, posted a Twitter thread, tweeting, “We ‘published a fictionalized version of the story’? That’s certainly an interesting way of saying we satirized an absurd real-life event. You know, that thing that all satirical outlets do.”
…
Snopes subsequently updated its story, apologizing for any wording that might have seemed to imply the Babylon Bee was actively trying to deceive readers. But by the beginning of this week, trolls were actively peddling a conspiracy theory claiming Snopes is trying to de-platform the Babylon Bee by getting Facebook to flag its stories as fake news.
Recommended
Again, which trolls?
We've moved on from citing Twitter nobodies on trend stories. That's good!
The bad news is we've moved on to simply asserting "trolls are saying X" and providing no evidence. Which is arguably worse. pic.twitter.com/XKtOfz5Ixh
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 1, 2019
I'll drop the arguably. It's worse.
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 1, 2019
Most definitely. And, like Snopes, BuzzFeed doesn’t even try to debunk Erica Thomas’ hoax. The best Broderick can do is acknowledge that “Thomas’s account of the matter has been disputed.” And that she’s become “a popular target for right-wing media,” of course.
"Uh oh! A conservative target noticed what our side was doing!"
"Quick! Call it a Conspiracy Theory!"
"But that's false and misleading, isn't it?"
"Did you forget we work for Buzzfeed?"
— Saluwe ?? (@saluwe) August 1, 2019
Yeah that’s the story pic.twitter.com/QxvKslYaHO
— EW (@Duke_of_5T) August 1, 2019
Yes, that's the real story here Ben. Brilliant work.
— K. Slate (@SlateKensington) August 1, 2019
Maybe the actual story here is why does Snopes keep repeatedly fact checking a known satire site.
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) August 1, 2019
Pretty sure the actual story here Ben, is the fact that the ppl at Snopes continually 'fact checks' a known satire site and that gets them strikes on FaceBook
You are worthless https://t.co/y7OSCXLRag
— Bob Malak (@bob_malak) August 1, 2019
It amazes me to no end how stupid you ppl at buzzfeed actually think your readers are
— Bob Malak (@bob_malak) August 1, 2019
Join the conversation as a VIP Member