Fact Check: Is The Babylon Bee a ‘Fake News’ Site?
A Miami Herald headline misrepresents the satire site—and contradicts its own article.
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A headline for an article from the Miami Herald claims that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “used [a] fake news site to raise cash.” A tweet promoting the article uses the same language.
The article details how DeSantis’ campaign committee and a political action committee associated with his campaign have paid The Babylon Bee for access to its list of subscribers. The Babylon Bee is a conservative satire website. The article itself describes The Babylon Bee correctly, reporting that the campaign and PAC “have sought help from a satire website with the tagline ‘Fake news you can trust.’”
After a New York Times article referred to the Bee as a “right-wing misinformation site,” the Bee threatened legal action, leading to the Times correcting its article and changing references to the Babylon Bee to make clear that it is satire. Other outlets, such as Snopes, have similarly gone from referring to Bee articles as “false” to “satire.”
While the Babylon Bee certainly has a partisan point of view, it both clearly labels itself as satire and has a reputation for being a satirical website.
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For all of the rage against the right-wing media ecosystem, examples like this are perfect exhibits to display why the ecosystem was created in the first place.
I was kind of curious, so I did a very unscientific study and perused the primary legacy papers in markets that I know are more conservative, mostly along the Gulf Coast - Pensacola, Mobile, Biloxi. And even in these markets the papers had an explicit leftward slant. Is it any wonder that conservatives built their own media in response?
Miami certainly is not a conservative market (though it surprisingly has a Republican, crypto-loving mayor), but the headline highlighted here isn't a mistake. It's an intentionally misleading attempt to paint a narrative. Surprise, surprise.
Love the Bee.