{"id":648351,"date":"2021-08-15T18:21:56","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T22:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=648351"},"modified":"2021-08-15T18:21:58","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T22:21:58","slug":"fact-checking-snopes-ceo-admitted-to-publishing-dozens-of-articles-containing-plagiarized-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-checking-snopes-ceo-admitted-to-publishing-dozens-of-articles-containing-plagiarized-content\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Fact-Checking\u2019 Snopes CEO Admitted To Publishing Dozens Of Articles Containing Plagiarized Content"},"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\">24<\/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%2Ffact-checking-snopes-ceo-admitted-to-publishing-dozens-of-articles-containing-plagiarized-content%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=648351&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\/08\/Fact-v-Fake.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>The CEO and co-founder of Snopes, an outlet that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snopes.com\/about\/\"><span>purports<\/span><\/a><span> to publish \u201coriginal, investigative reporting\u201d and fact checks, admitted that he plagiarized dozens of articles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>According to an investigation by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/deansterlingjones\/snopes-cofounder-plagiarism-mikkelson\"><span>BuzzFeed<\/span><\/a><span>, between 2015 and 2019, the outlet\u2019s co-founder David Mikkelson wrote and published dozens of articles containing plagiarized content from major news outlets, including The Guardian and the Los Angeles Times. Inquiries from BuzzFeed prompted an internal review, which confirmed that Mikkelson had published 54 articles with plagiarized material.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe articles include such topics as same-sex marriage licenses and the death of musician David Bowie,\u201d BuzzFeed reports.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Snopes executives issued a statement condemning Mikkelson for his lapse in judgment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cPlagiarism undermines our mission and values, full stop,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cIt has no place in any context within this organization. We invite readers to let us know here if they find any other examples of plagiarized content so that we can apply the same treatment as above.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Mikkelson\u2019s publishing rights have since been revoked, though he still maintains 50 percent of the company\u2019s stock and remains a top executive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In a statement, Mikkelson admitted to plagiarism and handed the reigns of publication duties to Snopes Vice President of Editorial and Managing Editor Doreen Marchionni.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe results of our internal audit confirmed that I engaged in multiple serious copyright violations of content that Snopes didn\u2019t have rights to use,\u201d Mikkelson said. \u201cThere is no excuse for my serious lapses in judgment. I am sorry. I have given full authority to our managing editor, Doreen Marchionni, to take any measures needed to address these issues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The BuzzFeed investigation uncovered that the plagiarized articles were published under three separate bylines. The first was Mikkelson\u2019s real name, the second was \u201cSnopes Staff,\u201d and the third was a pseudonym byline \u201cJeff Zarronandia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>According to former Managing Editor Brooke Binkowski, Mikkelson used the pseudonym \u201cto write about topics he knew would get him hate mail under that assumed name.\u201d \u201cPlus it made it appear he had more staff than he had,\u201d Binkowski said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Snopes is known for issuing fact-checks on opinion pieces, analysis articles, and satire. The site appears to have an overt bias against conservatives and has provided cover for Democrats on multiple occasions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In March, Snopes <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/snopes-offers-bizarre-biden-cover-in-fact-check-on-potus-forgetting-defense-secretarys-name\"><span>assigned<\/span><\/a><span> a \u201cMixed\u201d true-and-false rating to the claim that President Biden forgot the name of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a speech. Snopes conceded that the president was \u201cfumbling his words and apparently [blanked] on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin\u2019s name at one point in the speech.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However, the outlet added that the claim is \u201cmixed\u201d because it\u2019s possible that Biden \u201cgot stuck doing an extended \u2018folksy\u2019 ad-lib after initially tripping over his words.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Snopes similarly provided cover for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) when she claimed that she feared for her life on January 6 during the Capitol riot. The outlet provided a \u201cmostly false\u201d rating for the statement that \u201cAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez exaggerated the danger she was in during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, in that she \u2018wasn\u2019t even in the Capitol building\u2019 when the rioting occurred.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In the same fact check, Snopes admits that \u201cOcasio-Cortez wasn\u2019t in the main Capitol building where the House and Senate Chambers are located.\u201d The organization still opted to provide cover for AOC\u2019s statements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Related: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/snopes-posts-bogus-pro-aoc-fact-check-ends-up-exposing-its-left-wing-bias\"><b>Snopes Posts Bogus Pro-AOC \u2018Fact Check,\u2019 Ends Up Exposing Its Left-Wing Bias<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><i><span>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 <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i><span>member<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CEO and co-founder of Snopes, an outlet that purports to publish \u201coriginal, investigative reporting\u201d and fact checks, admitted that he plagiarized dozens of articles.According to an investigation by BuzzFeed, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-648351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648351","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=648351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}