It’s getting more and more challenging to differentiate between actual news stories and Babylon Bee headlines. Case-in-point: “The Co-Founder Of The Fact-Checking Site Snopes Was Writing Plagiarized Articles Under A Fake Name.”
The story from Buzzfeed reads like a tale of irony wrapped in idiocy. Snopes, the “fact-checking” site that has tens of millions of avid readers, has built a reputation for exposing the truth. But as we and others have demonstrated over the years, they are just as corrupt and biased as any of the so-called “fact-checkers” who pretend to be fighting fake news. They are, in fact, covering for fake news coming from the left.
But Snopes took it a step further. To be specific, co-founder and half-owner David Mikkelson was participating in creating fake news. Buzzfeed uncovered over 50 articles written under his name, the publication’s handle, and a fake name, all of which were plagiarized from other outlets. He has been suspended from his own company from posting further while they investigate.
According to Buzzfeed:
David Mikkelson, the co-founder of the fact-checking website Snopes, has long presented himself as the arbiter of truth online, a bulwark in the fight against rumors and fake news. But he has been lying to the site’s tens of millions of readers: A BuzzFeed News investigation has found that between 2015 and 2019, Mikkelson wrote and published dozens of articles containing material plagiarized from news outlets such as the Guardian and the LA Times.
After inquiries from BuzzFeed News, Snopes conducted an internal review and confirmed that under a pseudonym, the Snopes byline, and his own name, Mikkelson wrote and published 54 articles with plagiarized material. The articles include such topics as same-sex marriage licenses and the death of musician David Bowie.
Snopes VP of Editorial and Managing Editor Doreen Marchionni suspended Mikkelson from editorial duties pending “a comprehensive internal investigation.” He remains an officer and a 50% shareholder of the company.
“Our internal research so far has found a total of 54 stories Mikkelson published that used appropriated material, including all of the stories Buzzfeed shared with us,” Marchionni and Snopes Chief Operating Officer Vinny Green said in a statement.
“Let us be clear: Plagiarism undermines our mission and values, full stop,” Marchionni added. “It has no place in any context within this organization.”
Snopes’ editorial staff disavowed Mikkelson’s behavior in a separate statement signed by eight current writers. “We strongly condemn these poor journalistic practices. … we work hard every day to uphold the highest possible journalistic and ethical standards.”
Snopes told BuzzFeed News it plans to retract all of the offending stories and disable advertising on them. It will also append an editor’s note of explanation to each.
Said Mikkelson, “There is no excuse for my serious lapses in judgement. I’m sorry.”
“Fact-checkers” are used by both mainstream media and Big Tech to suppress conservative-oriented stories while gaslighting the general public. They promote narratives, not truth, and are driven by the same agenda as the radical progressives who promote them.
One of the arbiters-of-truth heralded by radical progressives across the country has disavowed its own co-founder for posting fake news by the dozens. The Babylon Bee will be jealous that they didn’t come up with this before it became reality.
