Snopes is not amused…
…by the Babylon Bee.
You can’t make this stuff up, but the folks at Snopes apparently can:
…Snopes doesn’t seem to understand how humor works or why it’s even a thing in the first place. Their “fact-check” article begins with one of the most elitist and stuffy subtitles I’ve ever seen on an article.
“We’re not sure if fanning the flames of controversy and muddying the details of a news story classify an article as “satire.”,” writes Snopes author Dan Evon.
Evon rated the Bee’s story as “False”…because…well, yeah.
Evon then says that the satirical website has fooled people in the past and lists a number of links to those who have been fooled by this post by the Bee in particular, forgetting half the fun of satirical sites are writing humorous fiction that drifts close enough to reality that it becomes a distorted mirror of it.
Reminds me of the joke “How many feminists does it take to change a lightbulb?” “THAT’S NOT FUNNY!!”
The Bee, however, has retaliated with this article entitled “Snopes Publishes Helpful Fact Check On 1996 Basketball Documentary ‘Space Jam’,” as well as this one entitled “Snopes Rolls Out New Opinion Check Feature”:
Alongside the site’s helpful fact checks of satirical articles and debunking of urban legends, there will now be a section of the site dedicated to checking out opinions and letting you know which ones are acceptable to hold.
“Just checking facts wasn’t enough anymore—now, people are looking to Snopes to be the moral arbiter of which opinions are OK and which ones are not,” said a spokesperson for the website. “This has been a long time coming. We’ve pretty much been doing this all along, but disguising it as a ‘fact check.’ So now we can just be much more upfront with people about what our intentions are.”
As soon as the feature went live, Snopes had opinion-checked dozens of opinions, including the following:
President Trump isn’t as bad as Hitler
White men aren’t all bad
Abortion is wrong
Pineapple does not belong on pizza
Hillary Clinton is not a good person
The Last Jedi is trash
It’s OK to laugh at a joke on the internetAll of these earned a “Wrong” opinion rating. Any post expressing these opinions on social media will automatically be tagged with a “Wrong” rating from Snopes.
[NOTE: And the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” WaPo fact-checked the Mueller hearings, but only the Republicans and not a single Democrat.]
Snopes is or was Facebook’s go-to place for “legitimate” fact checking. Now that is really not funny.
They have been busy bees this week and their satire is way to close to reality for Snopes.
Now if Snopes discovers that JY, aka Mr. Waxme, in British Columbia is not a woman, I will be totally shocked!
Are we now officially in the Twilight Zone?
Pursuant to a Friday afternoon info dump it appears Ilhan Omar is also not amused. . . with husband #1, Ahmed Hirsi, who has now been kicked to the curb (metaphorically, of course).
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7287273/Ilhan-Omar-SPLITS-husband-father-three-children.html
Fascists, communist and dictators of all stripes do not appreciate humor. They see it for the powerful weapon against them that it is.
I like the title.
The problem with the Babylon Bee, is the inconsistent and often clumsy writing, along with big problems in keeping the tone straight.
You often see openly sarcastic descriptions employed when the “news story” and “playing it straight” devices which are critical to that style of humor, are undermined by such self-indulgence.
From what I have seen, this tonal mash-up is typical of many left-wing blogger’s attempts at satire – because the authors simply cannot contain themselves – whereas some of the Bee writing has been much better than that. But unfortunately not all of it.
They need to do a much better job of auditing their own work than they are now doing.
Looks like I need to audit my own use of possessives …
Got to say conservatives/Republicans have really upped their humor game since the 60s/70s.
“We’re not sure if fanning the flames of controversy and muddying the details of a news story classify an article as “satire.”,” writes Snopes author Dan Evon.
By that standard Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Firesign Theatre, Monty Python, Richard Pryor and Sam Kinison weren’t providing “satire.” Good to know.
Oh, and throw Saturday Night Live into that batch.
It is fun to be funny, especially if there is a bit of satire, irony and exaggeration with some aggravation. We don’t need humor cops to keep us in the correct lanes and the proper speeds when we make and repeat funny stuff, especially if it kind of grinds on the other political party. Bad humor is not just a one way street, just dump it out there and see who salutes.
Snopes’ fact-checking the Babylon Bee, an obviously satirical website, rather confirms what many wingnuts had already said about Snopes: a lefty site putting a lefty slant on the “truth.” while masquerading as a fact-checking site.
When will Snopes fact-check Kathy Griffin or Bill Maher? After all, wingnut satire needs to be fact-checked. Why not lefty satire?
The more Snopes fact-checks Babylon Bee, the more it beclowns itself.
The scary part is telling the satire from the news stories.
Gringo:
My guess is that Snopes’ attention also has the effect of increasing the Bee’s traffic. And even some Democrats who go there might like what they see, if they have a sense of humor.
Because when I read DNW’s comments I always expect a sense of humor.
As I recall, Snopes started as a site for busting urban legends and internet scams. It was a good place to send people who were all agog about something bogus they saw on the web.
I didn’t notice when Snopes morphed into political fact-checking. According to wiki it was during Obama’s first term.
“Fact checking” as the term is used by outfits like Snopes, PoliFact, etc. is a euphemism for censorship. Not censorship in the most extreme sense of actively suppressing information. Rather, this is “soft” censorship: allowing the information but with a formal caveat. Trigger warnings serve the same purpose.
As I consider progressivism to be a goodless religion, it’s not surprising this practice has similarities to the Censor Librorum of the Catholic Church. Snopes and the like offer a ‘nihil obstat’ to a piece if they determine it is “factual” (i.e. comporting to progressive orthodoxy) But it takes a lefty intellectual or publication (akin to a bishop) to actively promote it, for it to have the progressive ‘imprimatur’.
Oh, it was supposed to be political fact checking? And here all along I’d been under the mistaken impression it was no more than political brown-nosing. Shucks.
Snopes’ new motto:
“Democracy dies in derpness”
(I wonder if Snopes will fact-check that…)
I was curious to know if Snopes has ever fact-checked The Onion. I found one piece they did — “Did ICE Hurl a Pregnant Woman Over a Border Wall?” — but it treated The Onion ever-so gently, even though it said that it dealt with a topic that was a “hot-button issue”:
Not even a hint of that “We’re not sure if fanning the flames of controversy and muddying the details of a news story classify an article as ‘satire’ ” they felt obliged to hurl at Babylon Bee.
Liberals apparently have no sense of humor. It reasonably follows that Snopes is run by liberals.
This is not the first time that Snopes jumped the ass and revealed their political character.
Instapundit is on it.SNOPES TO DEBUNK IN 3. . 2 . . 1: Ilhan Omar Introduces Resolution Condemning Racism, White Men, And The Jews. Link to Babylon Bee, of course.
Gringo: Snopes can’t be happy that they’ve become Instapundit meme for ridicule and deservedly so.
Not that they’ll change their ways in favor of honest non-partisanship. Heaven forefend!
Snopes is going to be very busy if they keep this up: Dominic Green, Spectator USA — “Will Trump declare war on Sweden?
Mobs attack IKEA, demanding refunds”
https://spectator.us/trump-declare-war-sweden/
Fresh off the pixels:
The Babylon Bee — “Report: More Unborn Babies In New York Identifying As Convicted Criminals So They Can’t Legally Be Executed”
https://babylonbee.com/news/report-more-unborn-babies-in-new-york-identifying-as-convicted-criminals-so-they-cant-legally-be-executed
Satire is so tricky.
Post a Babylin Bee or Onion piece on Facebook and watch the kneejerk reactions to the headline.
Then the embarrassment of having to explain.
On a personal level, I used to make satirical comments, only to find the other person didn’t get it, and it was so far out, explaining it makes the other look foolish or gullible, so I don’t and change the subject.
Babylon Bee is daily reading for my older kids; along with Clean Memes. They find both hilarious.
(It helps that the Bee is largely intended for a politically-aware, grew-up-in-evangelical-churches audience, though of course it can be appreciated by a wider audience.)
I confess I don’t know why on earth Snopes keeps making the mistake (?) of “fact-checking” a Babylon Bee satire piece. This is, what, the fourth time this year?
The folks operating Snopes these days are, in fact, hard-left. So I can’t really bring myself to say, “surely they can’t be that stupid?” …because of course they can.
But you’d think they’d catch on after four times that it’s making them look stupid. Surely that’s bad for their brand?
In that case, why don’t they stop?
My best guess, at present, is that Snopes…
(a.) thinks the readers of Babylon Bee and the readers of Snopes are mutually-exclusive audiences;
(b.) thinks their own audience hates evangelical Christians, thinks they’re stupid, and thinks that the Bee’s readers genuinely are unable to distinguish between reality and satire;
…and thus, are perfectly willing to look stupid in the eyes of Bee readers, while trying to make Bee readers look stupid in the eyes of Snopes readers. They’re playing to “their base,” as it were: “Drinking their own ink.”
Here is a biggie and why we are going to lose this once boomers go to sing for the choir triumphant…
Warren warns of economic trouble ahead. Is she right?
Well, they erased Eliza Pinkerston, unless you want to read the Congressional Record
or the back copies of the press of the period wallpapering the forgotten history…
but now, your watching them write future history, for when people look back and pull out a newspaper article, a la 1984 (but no central state doing it), they can say that she was so keen on finances she was prescient
Her prescience made her a household name?
vote for me i am the oracle of delphiniums Communist BS and see the future financial (and everything else, and would make the kind of person whose five year plans will work (this time))
[i really really hate the way they are trying to bribe people with the money the people give them, that’s like me taking 100 out of your wallet and saying i will give you 100 to do X]
Well I don’t care what Snopes or the Bee or anybody says.
Pineapple on pizza is morally and philosophically WRONG.
!!!!!
Now Garbage, = sausage + pepperoni + black AND green olives + mushrooms + onions + green pepper + anchovies + shrimp (easy tomato sauce & mozzarella go without saying): That is the Pizza of the Angels, indeed of the Great Frog its/his/her very own self.
N.B. It isn’t quite the real real real-deal pizza, but St. Peter also readily opens the Gates to the bacon + onion pizza, hold the cheeze. 😀 😀
If you take yourself and these things so seriously that you cannot laugh at obvious jokes then you need therapy.
My money is now and always will be on the Babylon Bee.
What if Snopes is also satiring backatcha
Snopes is for Dopes.
Hanuman:
Would that that were true.
Alas, no. Snopes believes it is doing a public service by enlightening us.
“Democracy Dies in Darkness” WaPo
Remember, that’s not a warning, it’s their GOAL.
At the top of the Babylon Bee’s page is a huge tagline that says “FAKE NEWS YOU CAN TRUST.” Snopes takes itself way too serious. The Babylon Bee taking flak from snopes means they are right over their target.