{"id":563920,"date":"2021-06-14T20:07:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T00:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=563920"},"modified":"2021-06-14T20:07:14","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T00:07:14","slug":"exclusive-babylon-bee-team-talks-nyt-retraction-life-as-media-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-babylon-bee-team-talks-nyt-retraction-life-as-media-target\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Babylon Bee Team Talks NYT Retraction, Life As Media Target"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexclusive-babylon-bee-team-talks-nyt-retraction-life-as-media-target%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=563920&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/og-default.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p><span>Facing legal action, The New York Times backed away Monday from its claims that the Babylon Bee, a satire outlet, traffics in misinformation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Times\u2019 original story, published March 19, labeled the Bee a \u201cfar-right misinformation site.\u201d On Monday, the Times removed any reference to the Bee and added this correction: \u201cAn earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to the Babylon Bee, a right-leaning satirical website, and a controversy regarding the handling of its content by Facebook and the fact-checking site Snopes. While both Facebook and Snopes previously have classified some Babylon Bee articles as misinformation, rather than satire, they have dropped those claims, and the Babylon Bee denies that it has trafficked in misinformation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This isn\u2019t the first time the Bee has been targeted with the misinformation label, however. Last year, CNN reporter Donie O\u2019Sullivan <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/donie\/status\/1213955379484344322?s=20\"><span>suggested<\/span><\/a><span> that the site is actually fake news acting under the guise of comedy, as did CNN anchor <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/The_Kyle_Mann\/status\/1214170914771783685?s=20\"><span>Brian Stelter<\/span><\/a><span>. And it took the threat of a lawsuit for fact checking company Snopes to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/babylon-bee-gets-lawyers-involved-after-snopes-james-barrett\"><span>retract<\/span><\/a><span> its claim that the Bee attempts to \u201cdeceive\u201d readers rather than make them laugh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Even some Christian news outlets have gone after the Bee\u2019s comedy, as when <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2019\/august\/babylon-bee-satire-research-snopes-fake-news.html\"><span>Christianity Today<\/span><\/a><span> interviewed researchers who claimed conservatives often can\u2019t discern its \u201cfalsehoods.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><span>The Daily Wire reached out to three senior members of the Bee team \u2014 CEO Seth Dillon, Editor-in-Chief Kyle Mann, and Managing Editor Joel Berry \u2014 to ask them about the Times dust-up and how they manage to write jokes in between dodging darts from the legacy media machine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>_________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Editor-in-Chief Kyle Mann says <\/span><span>that, at this point, there\u2019s no question Big Tech, social media fact-checkers, and the media are treating his site very differently than they do left-leaning comedy and satire.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt happens over and over again,\u201d he says. \u201cThe Left \u2018fools\u2019 people with satire from Colbert, The Onion, Saturday Night Live, Sacha Baron Cohen, or any other left-leaning comedian, and the Left loves it. If people ever \u2018fall for\u2019 a Babylon Bee article, it\u2019s suddenly dangerous misinformation that must be stopped. There\u2019s a clear double standard because of our political leanings and the biases of fact-checkers and Big Tech overlords.\u201d<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Managing editor Joel Berry says it may not <\/span><i><span>just<\/span><\/i><span> be a product of bias, though. He believes the media\u2019s disconnect with regular people in the real world plays a role, as well. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve observed is that many in the news and fact-check media are so insulated in their bubbles that they genuinely believe conservatives are more susceptible to believing satire than they are,\u201d he says. \u201cThey really do think we\u2019re stupid.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Refuting studies like those cited by Christianity Today, Berry says, \u201cYou can point to studies they\u2019ve released that seem to prove that conservatives are more likely to believe fake news until you look deeper and find out how faulty and biased those studies are. Some of them really see themselves as heroes protecting feeble minds from believing lies, which makes it so much better when we make fun of them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s important to note, however, that the misinformation moniker isn\u2019t just a cheap smear\u2014\u00a0 it\u2019s a tactic that\u2019s based on a deep understanding of the Bee\u2019s business model and how social media oversight currently works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In recent years, social networks have begun promoting their efforts to stop the spread of fake news. They do this not just by flagging misinformation, but by banning sites and suspending individuals who share it. Because of this, explains CEO Seth Dillon, \u201cIf you don\u2019t like [the Babylon Bee], the quickest and surest way to get us deplatformed is to lump us in with fake news. [News outlets such as The New York Times] do that by constructing a narrative that says we\u2019re trafficking in misinformation \u2018under the guise of satire.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>One of the chief ways to do this is by interviewing \u201cexperts\u201d who introduce opinion into reporting. \u201c[The media] cite a baseless claim from an expert,\u201d Dillon says, \u201cand then expand on it as if it\u2019s well-supported. This gives the reader the impression they\u2019re reading something factual when they\u2019re not.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Mann says he saw this dynamic play out in a different <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/10\/16\/technology\/babylon-bee.html\"><span>Times<\/span><\/a><span> piece from October. Only in that case, the \u201cexpert\u201d the Times reporter interviewed was, in fact, another Times reporter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWhen the Times ran a piece calling us misinformation disguised as satire,\u201d he says, \u201cthey interviewed their own journalist rather than interviewing us directly.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Describing it as \u201ccircular, self-referential reporting,\u201d Mann points out that Times reporter Kevin Roose never reached out to him or anyone else at the organization, but instead \u201c[cited] [the paper\u2019s] own pieces to prove we\u2019re some kind of nefarious fake news site, when anyone with half a brain can go straight to our website and see we\u2019re just telling jokes.\u201d Mann later adds, \u201cAs the reporting on the pandemic over the last year has shown us, \u2018experts\u2019 are often anything but, and you can always find some \u2018expert\u2019 somewhere to say something to support whatever point you\u2019re making, no matter how outlandish or harmful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Dillon says that as a satire outlet, he wishes the Bee could just keep things light and didn\u2019t have to send demand letters or threaten lawsuits, but he feels distortion like that contained in the Times\u2019 story leaves him no choice if the Bee is to survive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cPublications like the<\/span> <span>Times, Snopes,<\/span> <span>etc.,<\/span><span>\u00a0are considered \u2018reliable sources,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cSo their statements carry weight. If their mischaracterizations of us go unchallenged, then they can put us out of business. It\u2019s that simple. The founder of Snopes, David Mikkelson, once said they don\u2019t have the power deplatform us. But that\u2019s not exactly true. They have the power to determine with their fact checks whether we\u2019re characterized accurately as satire, or inaccurately as deceptive disinformation. And who do you think the social networks look to for accurate characterizations of websites?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>On the flip side, the fact that the heaviest hitters in legacy media are uniformly attacking a satire site that was founded only five years ago speaks to the Bee\u2019s phenomenal success and just how threatening the Left finds <\/span><span>effective satire that can demolish in seconds the narratives that took Democrats months, if not years, to craft.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cSometimes, a joke cuts quicker and deeper than an investigative report or 12-page think-piece,\u201d Berry points out. \u201cWe make fun of people who take themselves very, very seriously, and that never gets old.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And that brings him to the upside of being a media target.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>After CNN attacked the Bee, the cable channel became one of its ripest target for satire, with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/cnn-attacks-babylon-bee-the-internet-is-only-big-enough-for-one-fake-news-site\"><span>headlines<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/cnn-hires-trump-as-news-anchor-to-recover-lost-viewers\"><span>such as<\/span><\/a> <span>\u201cCNN Attacks Babylon Bee: \u2018The Internet Is Only Big Enough For One Fake News Site\u2019\u201d and \u201cCNN Hires Trump As News Anchor To Recover Lost Viewers.\u201d Berry says he now expects the Gray Lady \u201cwill be a fruitful source of jokes well into the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Or as Mann puts it, \u201cWe\u2019re just glad the New York Times has chosen to respect the fact that we self-identify as satire. Our pronouns are ha\/ha.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming <a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a\u00a0<\/a><a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">member<\/a><a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Facing legal action, The New York Times backed away Monday from its claims that the Babylon Bee, a satire outlet, traffics in misinformation.The Times\u2019 original story, published March 19, labeled &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2280274,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/og-default.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"EXCLUSIVE: Babylon Bee Team Talks NYT Retraction, Life As Media Target","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-563920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/og-default.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"EXCLUSIVE: Babylon Bee Team Talks NYT Retraction, Life As Media Target","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}