The Babylon Bee Satirizes the Absurdities of American Politics. Snopes Doesn't Seem to Get the Joke.
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- Satirical articles from humor site have now been fact-checked by Snopes more than 30 times.
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Since its founding in 2016, Christian satire site The Babylon Bee has been regularly making fun of Christians, the left, the right, Trump, and various cultural fads. The site has steadily grown in popularity and now boasts about 10 million monthly page views. In addition to making poignant jokes, Kyle Mann, the site's editor in chief, aims to use satire as a weapon to separate truth from fiction.
But less than five months after its inception, The Babylon Bee found itself being labeled as a "fake news site" by the prominent online fact-checker Snopes. Satirical articles from The Bee have now been fact-checked by Snopes more than 30 times.
Some of the more outlandish fact-checks include headlines such as "Democrats Demand Kavanaugh Submit To DNA Test To Prove He's Not Actually Hitler," "Ocasio-Cortez Appears On 'The Price Is Right,' Guesses Everything Is Free," and "CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication."
In an effort to justify fact-checking satire, Snopes republished an article from the academic commentary and analysis site The Conversation arguing that "too many people think satirical news is real." While he's not inherently opposed to fact-checking satire, Kyle Mann says that the original study was meant to observe the effects of satire in general, but when tweeting out their link of the study, Snopes specifically targeted The Babylon Bee.
What's more, the study's methodology was questionable: Instead of showing participants articles as they appeared online, satirical headlines were stripped of both context and comedy. For example, the Babylon Bee headline "CNN: 'God Allowed the Mueller Report to Test Our Shakeable Faith in Collusion.'" was presented to participants as "CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper said his belief that Trump colluded with Russia is unshakable; it will not change regardless of statements or evidence to the contrary."
Reason's John Osterhoudt sat down with Mann to discuss the Snopes criticism, his aspirations for the Bee, and why he believes that satire can divide what's important from what's not, revealing important truths about the world.
Produced by John Osterhoudt
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The Babylon Bee: Fake News You Can Trust
-actual tagline
A brilliant tagline.
Stuart Coker That’s I’ve been sayin. Now days it’s hard to tell the difference between satire and real life “news”.
@Stuart Coker True, but its not just the left. There are several fake Trump sites that put a lot of fake news out there.
And Snopes says it's false because you can't trust them. 😂😂😂
Things like facts, and truths are confounding to snopes, who chooses facts over truths...
They should do something like: "Snopes fact checked themselves and found themselves to be mostly false."
Mr MysteryCake
Everything we say is a lie
In the study, we went to a Walmart and grabbed random people by the arm and started shouting at them: "HEY, DO YOU THINK SNOPES IS REAL!?" The ones who didn't run away screaming or call for security responded, and of those few dozen people, we got our results. Most said, "Sure, yeah, whatever, please just leave me alone and don't hurt me!" while others said they thought it was satire site. A few people said, "Snopes Dogg? I loved his album, Straight Outta Compton."
@@joshuaf1126 Nice.
Is it considered satire if true?
Snopes checked themselves but still wrecked themselves
Do they fact check The Onion?
No because they are left leaning
Take the two "S" letters out of "Snopes" and you should have your answer.
@@Code7Unltd SS?
@@BaranoffIsaac and you can check that through snopes and they are never wrong or uses vagueness to cover up lies. I checked by using snopes.
@@BaranoffIsaac the only fact checker you should ever trust is yourself. Fact checking sites may help but if you lean on one you're just using one media source to confirm another that most likely have the exact same views. The people that are typically the most political and unobjective are the ones that claim they aren't. Simply put, who fact checks the fact checker?
Satire is not tolerated in totalitarian states. Satire is like the canary in the coal mine. When an organization has a problem with satire, it should not be take lightly, it should be taken as a warning sign.
Well-put! And thanks for your service, Beckel
Satire promotes critical thinking,
How can that be bad?
BECAUSE IT MAKES FUN OF MY LEFTIST VIEWS BIGOT!
Liberals don’t like using their brains for thinking.
If you are expecting critical thinking from a Christian satirical news site you should be prepared for disappointment. People who form their worldview around principles of FAITH are intentionally choosing to avoid thinking critically.
@@Notintimidated2013 The same should be said of anyone making decisions influenced by religious beliefs.
...because they don't want the Gentiles to be thinking at all...
Hahhahahhhhhhhh omg I’m gonna pass out from laughing at the aoc price is right
To be clear, you are laughing at a FAKE video that is NOT to be taken seriously. This is serious, ok?
@@QuadCloudNine Seriously.
@@James_Bee That better not be a joke, or else something serious might happen.
I fack checked this and determined it was a False
@@QuadCloudNine Are you serious? You'd better be seated at a serious enough table to be having this conversation. I'm not certain you're serious about this.
The reason Snopes has to fact check is that so much of the Babylon Bee comes true.
When BLM was made time magazines person of the year, I grumbled. Then I learned the Babylon Bee made a satirical article on that months before.
There's humor in the truth and truth in the humor. That is why satire is so popular. It's why the Chappelle Show was gold and how South Park still ekes along.
wolfpack4128 South Park and the Simpsons alike have really shown their colors since the 2016 election, I didn’t even vote for Trump and always viewed myself as a centrist when it came to politics. I just don’t understand how the MSM pushes shit with ill regard to factually backing up their claims. Over the past 3 years, I’ve felt my beliefs constantly tick over to the right like a damn clock.
@@SpudEater I am curious to learn how the last 3 years of SouthPark episodes have pushed your views towards the Right?
Are their any noteworthy examples of SouthPark scenes that demonstrate what you mean by "revealed their True colors?"
I'm very curious specifically about SouthPark because I have followed it for 21 seasons now, and the creators have remained very consistent in their Philosophy in my view, despite having made a dreadful miscalculation in Season 19 by assuming that the Mr Garrison running for president plot would be over at the end of the season, which they explained and apologize for in their audio commentary for "The end of serialization as we know it!"
I'm a huge fan of the Simpsons Seasons 1-10, but after season 10, the original writers quit after the corporate owners of the brand of the show gave creative control to a new executive producer, David X Cohen who had never seen the show before.
The Simpsons has become a strange pro Liberalism piece in recent seasons, so I no longer watch.
Also, to be clear, I am reading your statement "pushed me to the right" as meaning that your core political values have grown more conservative & less egalitarian, rather than meaning "my antagonism towards the Democratic party has increased" (which is perfectly understandable as I would detest any external influences that are messing with my shows)
South Park writers are actually right leaning
@@jcmick8430 Anyone that doesn't stay extreme left is right leaning... that is meaningless these days considering how many leftists have said they've been left behind by their party.
@@James_Bee are you talking about the overton window?
fact checking satire should be recognized for what it is, classic definition of insanity.
@@sonza68
To be fair, only stupid people steeped in a sinful lifestyle of disobedience to God, will believe satire is real. It is said that sin and hatred of others make one stupid (or lose touch with common sense) and make them do stupid (blunderous) things. I'm not being judgemental nor preachy here, I'm just saying what the scriptures are saying. Besides, I also learned this painfully from personal experiences, many times. That is why I try my best to stay away from hatred and other people's hating business, otherwise I drag myself into the same dark hole as them.
You do realize people believe this right
@@ramiere1412 that cnn used a washing machine to spin news? No, no one believes that 🤣
@@ramiere1412
Then all Snopes has to say is that this is a site dedicated to satire. It's supposed to be comedic. It's how humour has worked forever. If I say that "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse", that shouldn't be up for a fact check. It's a simple joke but one doesn't infer dishonesty when the joke becomes a little more sophisticated. If people start using it as a reference to facts, all one has to do is to point out that this is comedic.
I'm going to say that these fact checks are put in place to prevent people from accessing satire sites because they don't like the implication of the humour being used. "Don't make fun of my beliefs". They do the same to people who call themselves comedians. Comedians don't like doing universities anymore because those, who become offended at jokes, have become violent at times. "Speech is violence" is the mantra.
They're attacking humour because humour and satire has always been a way to pick away at sacred beliefs. The religious call it blasphemy. The political left calls it "misinformation", their word for blasphemy.
@@JackHaveman52 no they are not “attacking satire” did you watch the video? Actual voters are actually gullible enough to believe this shit people actually use shit like this in political arguments
me: what did the horse say to the chicken?
Snopes: nothing, animals can't talk
CNN: Horses are racist for not saying Black Lives Matter.
"Why did you cross the road?"
@@sylviaisgod6947 recently spent couple billions of taxpayers money helped scientists to discover that chickens too.
When Snopes fact checks your jokes, you know you’ve made it.
That's what I was thinking. Snopes could also bring extra attention, even better!
This video is labeled as "Mostly False" by Snopes.
It's suppose to be funny, lol
Have a 300th like
Mostly false is slightly true
😝😝😝
Admittedly, Babylon Bee has sometimes tricked me into thinking their stories are real. But that’s not really their fault. It’s sad that reality can be so outrageous that it’s confused with satire and vice versa.
The surest sign of a healthy culture and society is one that can laugh at itself. Conclusion: Our society is extremely ill and should see a doctor.
Which doctor? No. A regular one.
Satire is not factual, but it does reveal truth.
I fully agree that satire fully intends to reveal truth!
A clever satire introduces novel juxtapositions of ideas to inspire insights on the veracity of the implicit claims, with the humor resulting from the new insights.
These "jokes" published by Babylon Bee are not so much telling a satirical narrative, as they are memes pandering to the pre-existing beliefs of its audience.
These are not serving to reveal anything that the reader doesn't already take for granted. If satire is defined by revealing truth, some of the contents produced by the Babylon Bee are not satire.
To provide an explicit example "CNN Purchases Industrial Sized Washing Machine to Spin News" is only meaningful to someone already aware of CNN's spin.
Kyle said it well, that satire is not truth, but truth-adjacent. It adds an element of absurdity to what's true, related to something else that the creator(s) think we should care about, to make a point.
So say people afraid of making explicit arguments and unwilling to address the nuances of other people's positions.
@@MrCmon113 True, but the converse is not true. The fact that deeper analysis and exposition is necessary to support the underlying ideas doesn't mean that the superficial, attention grabbing presentation is worthless, and the presence of the shallow doesn't imply the absence of the deep.
Funny they don't label it satire rather than false. That's the actual truth.
because satire requires a higher level of understanding. Snopes' target audience is very low IQ.
It really should be another category; "false" should mean the source intends it to believed to be true. When it's satire, especially when it's very obvious satire, it should be labeled as such instead of pretending the satirist was trying to fool anyone.
They do. At least, they've changed it so that they do now. Prior they were trying to keep it simple with "True, False, Mostly True, Mostly False, and unconfirmed"
Headline suggestion: "Snopes Fact Checks Star Wars."
@@gavincurtis After all Snopes is just wikipedia for pseudo-intellectuals
The Bee: We don't target one side over the other, we target who is being ridiculous.
Interviewer: So, you target the left.
😂😂😂
😂👍🏻
No one understands humor anymore. And we are all worse off because of it.
Sensitive leftists can't handle reality let alone a joke
There are no comedians in China.
@@raineman1118 You ever wonder what would be written if North Korea had its own satirical sites like the Bee, Onion, Frank, Lampoon, Private Eye, etc.(the Yongbyon Yawn, the Pyongyang Ricochet)?
- "Forced Patriotic Elderly Suffer Through Luncheon Repast of Soil, Grass, & Leaf Pies For Dear Leader, Just Because It's Wednesday"
- "'We're Dying Here,' Says 86 Lbs. Mom Warming Herself At Burning Barrel - 'Dying To Visit The New Eternal Funshine Kimboree Theme Park, Of Course' As Handguns of Dutiful Not-Secret Police Clack and Rack In Approval"
- "40-Year Painter Of NK Propaganda Posters 'Grateful' For State-Made Super-Toxic Paste And Paint Provided - 'The Poisons In Them Keep CV-19 Virus Away' While He Fights Stage 4 Cancer From Asbestos Canvases"
20 years ago I trusted Snopes for those Urban Legends, they actually were correct the majority of the time. Once they got involved with politics... Who knows...
True.
Snopes wouldn't know the truth if it's life depended on it.
Snopes website is down after it was cought in a infinite feed back loop. The creator has said "we should have never fact checked ourselves"
Has Snopes fact checked "Saturday Night Live" or "The Onion"?
Yes.
Or CNN
The Onion is actually pretty cool
@@JRL_ no, they are not. They are racist homophobic bootlickers for the oligarchy.
@@Attmay By our independent fact-checkers the above accusation is mostly false.
@3:08 Is the fact that a significant amount of people believe satirical articles are authentic an indication of being plagued by "fake news" or an implication of just how absurd the reality of our political and sociological zeitgeist have become?
The study is flawed and misleading. A majority of people don't believe satirical articles are authentic, a majority of people think that the synopses of satirical articles are real.
"Snopes fact-checking the Babylon Bee, dogs and cats sleeping together, it's mass hysteria!"
Living together
"A lot of times they missed the joke entirely." Odds are that the people who "miss the joke" are wound too tight, and are emotionally attached to whatever is being made fun of. In the words of the immortal Sgt. Hulka: "Lighten up, Francis."
This is why we shouldn’t give a single fact checking site the power to regulate social media. We end up giving them the final say.
Unless you troll them. Lol!
Its still more accurate than CNN and MSNBC.
This just in. Snopes fact checks it's own fact-checking and finds it's mostly dumb.
The Bee is amazing. Snopes just keeps showing they are a hack website.
I stopped reading anything on Snopes years ago after finding clear bias in some articles.
2021 and it is DIFFICULT to know if the BB is STILL satire, as reality has become so crazy...sad, strange times, so we need y'all, even more, to keep up your crazy-creative work at the BB!
Illustrating absurdity by being absurd is the most brilliant sort of humor there is. When leftists who take themselves too seriously can't see the humor in satire makes it that much funnier. :D
Babylon Bee = more factual than CNN.
True
And slightly less biased than Snopes.com. 😆
Who the hell actually pays attention to Snopes?
A lot of people.
a lot of people are idiots
@@BaranoffIsaac ironically they still end up misinformed
Do you alternative site that debunks (or claims to debunk) myths?
I stopped reading Snopes when they explained a slam on H. Clinton and through their description concluded that it was mostly true but then labeled it mostly false, and then when someone said "hate speech already isn't protected according to the supreme court" they labeled it mostly false but then went on to explain why according to SC opinions it is mostly true.
Snopes is the new “Wikipedia” when you mention it.. trust is gone,
Wikipedia is fine too it's a starting point and you look at what their sources are and you read their sources. There's never been such a thing as an infallible text book, because human error and bias are universal. what Wikipedia and similar do is give you a connection to at least one of the arguments about the topic and some initial source is to start from. Frankly that's quite a bit better than the standard peer-review process. I know this having a doctorate and quite a few friends in academia and when you see how many peer-reviewed journals are basically people who think alike agreeing with each other, you realize that is just one group of people with a credential feeling Superior to all. checking their sources is just more time-consuming in a peer-reviewed journal than in online peer review.
@@GunFunZS I know a Wikipedia editor who was sent to a conference in Canada. They sat around joking about how they manipulate Society!
@@moreawakenow6940 I know academics who do exactly the same.
@@moreawakenow6940 and for what it is worth, Wikipedia was a lot better prior to their "notability" policy. the main lesson is not the Wikipedia is bad or that academia is bad, but the any group of people or any source is only as good as its bias allows it to be, and bias is always present.
Wikipedia is very trustworthy if you understand its policies & verify the sources.
Did Snopes ever 'fact-check' the Daily Show, esp. when it was hosted by Jon Stewart and Craig Kilborn?
...didn't think so. So why is the Babylon Bee "so special" in this regard, Mikkelsons? lol
I probably never would have read the Babylon Bee if it wasn't for this controversy, but some of the articles are pretty funny.
Bill Maher got fact checked to his face in a livestream "show" I think last year, when he did a one-on-one with Dan Crenshaw with the intent to shame conservatives like Crenshaw. It was a huge pushback to Maher's face as he failed in every turn to dominate the interview due to Crenshaw being well-prepared with facts, and of course there was missing Maher's canned audience jeers and applauses to support him in the usual routine of bullying his guests into submission. Without those, Maher looked like the total jerk loser pundit that he's always been with his fake intelligence and false knowledge he displays on his TV show.
In olden times the bee was a symbol for words; buzzing around, sometimes sting, sometimes honey
The Babylon Bee needs to produce an article about Snopes doing a good job.
Who would fact check the fact checkers?
This is genius
If this satire is that often thought to be real, then that’s yet another example of why democracy is a joke. Those people can vote
Thank goodness we run a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC.
@@PatrickKQ4HBD Which is a form of democracy.
The fact that Snopes would even try to fact check these guys is hilarious! 😂
The sad truth is that a great many people especially those that are left-leaning can not recognize satire at all. I sometimes post the Bee's articles on my Facebook timeline but I remove all references to the Bee and people get incensed at me often getting into violent arguments with me about a particular article especially it concerns a current piece of political news. The same holds true when I post a Borowitz report though many will recognize his work. I truly enjoy triggering these fanatical left-wing fools who can never recognize humor. They deserve to be fooled and the Bee does a great job of taking the piss out of the left. Conservatives will usually just laugh if an article is aimed at them.
Isn't snopes owned by some crazy cat lady?
Babylon Bee is one of the only reasons I go to Facebook anymore. That and to see pictures of my friends’ babies. Facebook should know better than to go after the Bee.
Love the Bee ! But get off Facebook!Have your friends send you pictures of their Children! Zuckerberg is a very bad human !
The Onion wishes it was half as funny as Babylon bee
You guys are hilarious! I appreciate what u do.
I must admit I got fooled by Babylon Bee before I knew it was satire. It was the Chik Fil A story. It just seemed real.
Babylon bee is hilarious. I suggest you all check it daily
I (subjectively of course) find it it and miss. But when it hits, it hits it out of he park.
The Babe Ruth of satire sites. :)
Thanks Bee, I love all of your stuff!
This is the result of equality in classrooms that cant leave any child behind as well as media and flouride. The dumbing down of our people is going to become more apparent despite only now that its obvious, this has been a long term investment and generations and possibly even genetics have been comprised.
Snopes is a turgidly humorless site, and incredibly slanted. But TBH, I can't tell you how many times I've shared Babylon Bee articles, and had to deal with people screaming about them because they thought they were real. I've since marked all of them "SATIRE" (in caps), and put a link to a dictionary.
Snopes may be slanted, but what is freaking scarier is how many people are too stupid to get what satire is.
Snopes launches satirical media brand, investors nowhere to be found
I wonder whether Snopes has fact-checked the number of people who no longer go to them for fact-checking has grown considerably? (I wonder if they'll fact-check that?)
Thanks for having Kyle on!
0:49 That's the Redragon K552 KUMARA. Excellent keyboard.
“It’s the responsibility of companies and the government to help people know the truth.”
Hmmm... how does that sound to you?
This video is unproven but hints at a larger underlying truth.
I check that website out at least once a week for the pure gold comedy. They are great 👍🏽!!!!
Love the BB, one of the few gems I follow on Twitter
In this absurd world, it is no wonder that satire can be misconstrued as real. Who would have thought that men could use women's restrooms, that men could compete in women's sports. Those would have been satire 10 years ago.
I’m not surprised at this, just angered.
You know what the difference is between Penn and Teller and The Long Island Medium?
One is lying to you for your entertainment and telling you they are fooling you. The other is lying to you for your money and not telling you they are fooling you. One sucks and the other doesn't. Snopes and the Babylon Bee are a similar comparison.
Wait....you mean Snopes isn't satire?
"Snopes... just trying to strengthen their media literacy skills" -- 1:07. Yes, without services such as Snopes to spoon-feed us the true narrative, we would be helpless!
you can't be "demonetized" from crypto currencies.
Hard to satirize AOC in a way that is clearly satire.
“Snoopes” says this ReasonTV clip is MOSTLY true. “Nopes” says this ReasonTV clip is PROBABLY true.
When a significant portion of your population cannot distinguish between satire and reality the problem is not satire
The german brother of that is called der postillion.
Check it out and translate some headlines and articles
Truth adjacent... I'm trademarking that!
Unlike Joe Biden, the Babylon Bee actually delivers on the tag line “We choose truth, not facts!”
Unlike Joe Biden, the Babylon Bee is intentionally funny.
When someone makes a joke about you doing something stupid and you have to say "that's not true," it makes people wonder if it is close to the truth.
Reason - good on you for this profile !
I've been a fan of the Babylon Bee since its inception. Christian satire is not new. These guys remind me of the old 'Witenburg Door' cult classic Christian humor magazine from the 80's.
And of course that name alone evokes the memory of the first high profile Christian satirist in history, Martin Luther who beginning in 1517, nailed his 95 points of debate on the church door @ Witenburg Germany.
Luther then began to write lengthy Pamphlets & tracts mixing news, humor, theology & criticism of the Status quo - aimed squarely at the out of control Clergy & their unwarranted dominance of the culture & individual Christians.
If the Babylon Bee wrote of this:
'POPE PRESENTS TARGET SO LARGE EVEN A NEAR SIGHTED MONK CAN'T MISS'
My favorite thing about the bee is that 9 times out of 10 their satire becomes reality within a year. 🤣😂
THIS. THIS IS SO FUNNY
I died at the CNN washing machine headline
The answer to the problem is real simple: sue. Each and every time they mischaracterize. Use the courts and the weight of the law as a bludgeon against the enemies of free speech and against those who seek deplatforming as a substitute for actual debate. Ruin enough of them, smash their businesses and their futures, and then it will stop
I used to go to Snopes and recommend people use it when wondering if some random rumour is true. Not anymore since about 2019, when they started lying and becoming the same thing they were against.
That said, loss of humor is cognitive decay and you can tell who Snopes writes these for: people who have lost touch with reality.
Just saw the Reason TV interview. Do one on how snopes fact checks Family Guy and shows that parity politics!
If only Snopes would fact check the entire story, and acknowledge the true foundation of it.
"It's false that AOC went on the Price is Right. But it's true that she thinks everything is free"
At least we know that everything in the Onion is 100 percent factual.
The Babylon Bee agreed to interview with Reason but Snopes didn’t. Hmm.
The Babylon Bee is excellent.
Their work is funnier than anything that Saturday Night Live has ever done
Saul Alinsky said that ridicule is the most powerful weapon known to man. If you doubt that just ask Jen Psaki.
Haha, I lol even at the examples.
Best part of this video was getting a 'Support AOC' ad at the beginning...right before the satire of her saying everything is free.
I got a good laugh out of the washing machine CNN joke. Whomever wrote that. Bravo, that was fantastic.
"I can't believe it's not the Onion from 1999" is the best statire paper around! Keep it up, Babylon Bee!
Leftists and humor exist in parallel universes.
Did they ever fact check the daily show w/ Jon Stewart. Because a lot of people actually considered it news.
Babylonian bee, funnier than the onion especially now.
Do they fact check all the late night hosts, because half the population get their news there.
There is no better way to distract from discussing what we should do with the truth than to fight over it
The democrats are so easy to make fun of.
3:40 Am I the only one that noticed that insanely awesome drawing?
does Snopes "fact check" Liberal satire shows like The Daily Show?
Try the fact that "news" from the Babylon Bee is often shared as REAL news by mouth breathing trumpets, and HAVE to be fact checked to get it right, yet STILL get shared by the mouth breathers as FACT, and you have ample reason for fact checking satire.
Hats off to ReasonTV for interviewing a satire newspaper that frequently makes fun of libertarians specifically.
Facebook using Snopes as a legit fact-checker
I had a liberal friend try to teach me about fact checking. I humored him(30 some odd year old single pizza delivery career driver) and he brought up Snopes. I just said, OK, you got me there. 🤣😂🤣😂
AOC caught making kissy faces and winks at Alex Jones.
Snopes: FALSE!!
Me: Duh.
You know you're over the target when you're getting flak...