Reuters Ignores Biden, Fact Checks Babylon Bee
The Babylon Bee lives rent-free in the minds of too many journalists.
How else do you describe constant fact checks on a site that churns out satirical news stories a la The Onion?
USA Today once fact-checked a Bee piece saying President Joe Biden sold Alaska to Russia. PolitiFact ran to the scene after a Bee article claimed, “ISIS Lays Down Arms After Katy Perry’s Impassioned Plea To ‘Like, Just Co-Exist’”
Great work USA Today. Nothing like wasting your time. The Left has no sense of humor. But, they love anger.
Incredible:USA Today fact checks The Babylon Bee's "claim" that Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death was overturned by 9th circuit court https://t.co/H48mZUjVSG via @Not_the_Bee
— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) September 29, 2020
Snopes routinely holds the Bee accountable for creating Fake News stories meant to make us laugh and think.
Now, it’s Reuters’ turn.
The once-neutral outlet reached out to the Bee’s Editor-in-Chief, Kyle Mann, to see if the site’s story about ballot boxes being placed along the U.S.-Mexico border was true.
Mann shared the back-and-forth exchange with his X followers.
Reuters sent us an email to find out if our @TheBabylonBee story about ballot boxes being installed along the border wall was true.
I tried to help 'em out. pic.twitter.com/lBsuoGMscG
— Kyle Mann (@The_Kyle_Mann) March 6, 2024
His response?
“We went down to the border and took that picture. So it’s true. Hope this helps.”
Mann kept the running gag alive days later.
Next they’ll be checkin in on this one pic.twitter.com/LaCKAWNSKH
— Kyle Mann (@The_Kyle_Mann) March 6, 2024
And it’s not the first time Reuters fact-checked the Bee.
In 2021 it assured readers that a Bee story saying Rep. Nancy Pelosi “Thanks Millions of Babies For Sacrificing Their Lives For Women’s Rights” wasn’t accurate.
This is why nobody takes the Media or “fact checkers” seriously
The Babylon Bee posted the satirical headline ‘Child Grooming Content On X Reduced By 83% After Disney Pulls Ads’
A Reuters employee was paid to fact check this (they even reached to Disney for comment
) pic.twitter.com/gPsJd2MdUY
— Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) December 12, 2023
Reuters also targets other right-leaning voices over satirical posts.
Does Reuters not have any editors?
They actually did a serious fact check over clear joke tweets from @SirajAHashmi, @redsteeze etc. over whether Biden is actually POTUS.https://t.co/zbuVTMGR6P
— AG (@AGHamilton29) November 20, 2021
Does anyone remember a fact-checking organization treating The Onion the same way? It, too, serves up Fake News stories for satirical effect. (The fact that it’s no longer funny and can’t speak truth to power when Democrats are in charge is a separate matter.)
If examples do exist, please share them in the comments section below.
Do fact-checkers ever keep Stephen Colbert honest? Jimmy Kimmel? “Saturday Night Live?”
Actually, some fact-checkers did correct “SNL” once. The show dared to mock President Barack Obama, and journalists snapped into action.
RELATED: FOUR REASONS FACT CHECKERS WON’T TOUCH CELEBRITIES
There’s a method to the corrupt media’s war on The Babylon Bee and, to a lesser extent, conservative humor.
Facebook once flagged a Bee story saying CNN purchased an industrial-sized washing machine to spin the news as “misinformation.”
Why does that matter?
Social media giants lean on so-called “fact checkers” to make sure they’re sharing trustworthy information on their platforms. Share enough “misinformation,” and a site like The Babylon Bee could get purged from social media giants.
That would directly impact the company’s bottom line. The Bee generates revenue via traffic streams, and Facebook users aggressively post and share their stories.
Fact Checks Won’t Keep the ‘Big Guy’ Honest
There’s a much bigger problem afoot.
Fact-checkers too often ignore the current Commander-in-Chief, a leader whose trail of whoppers could circumvent the planet.
Ask why he's able to keep doing it without a single question or correction or fact check about it. https://t.co/lhxogGHMUY
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 12, 2022
So what DOES Reuters fact check?
Here’s a sample of recent fact-checks from the news outlet taken from the last seven days.
Time Magazine’s 1938 ‘Man of the Year’ choice not a Hitler endorsement
Posts don’t show evidence of ‘fraudulent’ Maricopa County mail-in ballots
Fabricated Rep. Greene post about shutting down government is parody
N.Y. Governor did not threaten to seize trucker bank accounts, homes
Report on Disney’s Cinderella Castle burning down stems from satire
Posts on Keanu Reeves refusal to present award to Whoopi Goldberg stem from satire
Note: This reporter typed in, “Biden Reuters Fact Check” into Google. The first page of results all showed checks that defended Biden. None of the first-page results featured stories fact-checking his statements.
Why burn so many calories with fact checks tackling conservative comedy? It’s simple.
Comedy matters.
It’s why late-night programs avoid mocking Democrats and skewer Republicans. The right sketch, joke or punch line can leave viewers feeling differently about a candidate or political position.
It also explains why liberal fact checkers select certain targets over others. For them, holding the Bee accountable sometimes matters more than keeping the leader of the free world honest.
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