Snopes

Snopes started as fact-checking but devolved into a hybrid of fact checks and leftist advocacy. Snopes was created by California couple Barbara and David Mikkelson to covert alt.folklore.urban newsgroup into a website. Despite a cabal of liberal editors, most of Snopes isn't that bad... but mostly fair is synonymous with unfair, and it is far from the paragon of objectivity some pretend. Virtually all errors or biases lean left, thus all sources that rely on them lean the same way. ℹ️ Info           ~ Aristotle Sabouni

Editor Bias

• Kim Lacapria - Snopes’ main political fact-checker is an "openly liberal" writer, who wrote for the FakeNews site the Inquisitr, and has a blogger history of obvious bias
  • Called Bill Clinton the greatest president ever, and being anti-Bush, anti-Tea party, and anti-Conservative
  • Spun Jimmy Carter's Iranian ban as nothing like Trump's more moderate one.
  • Implied that when Hillary claimed "we didn't lose a single person (in Libya)", she had only meant in the invasion.
  • Omar Mateen wasn't a democrat.
  • Or that Facebook Censorship of conservatives, admitted to by Facebook workers, wasn't real.

• Arturo Garcia is anti-Trump/BLM supporting progressive

• Bethenia Palma Markus was a contributing writer” by Truth-Out.org, a left-wing nonprofit working to “spur the revolution in consciousness and inspire the direct action that is necessary to save the planet and humanity", who said attacks against whites wasn't racist

• Alex Kasprak said Trump was a bully and an idiot and compared him to Kim Jong Il

• Snope Writer Alex Kasprak (formerly of leftist BuzzFeed) said Trump was a bully and an idiot and compared him to Kim Jong Il

• David Emery had a history of attacking Trump and Trump supporters

Snopes financial issues

While I'd far rather Snopes was doing the service they did earlier on, and not hiring biased editors to write partisan fact checks, and losing money doing it, leaving the fake news to NYT, CNN and WaPo to spin. But they are learning the hard way that if you alienate half your users, then you cut down on your revenues.

Examples

• 2001.03.01 T.R.O.L.L. - Snopes had a whole section for spreading disinformation called "The Repository of Lost Legends" or T.R.O.L.L.Snopes had a whole section for spreading disinformation called "The Repository of Lost Legends" or T.R.O.L.L. While it was intended to teach skepticism, by telling things that weren't true, and seeing if people would figure it out -- it was just condescending misinformation and hurt their brand of being a trustworthy source.
• 2002.10.12 Up-the-butt Bob - A female contestant was asked "what's the strangest place you made whoopee" and she replied, "in the ass".There was a famous Newlywed gameshow story, where a female contestant was asked "what's the strangest place you made whoopee" and she replied, "in the ass". The problem isn't that Snopes is wrong today, they found the clip and the article has a lot of backstory.
• 2013.04.27 Good enough - Snopes is biased on political stuff. But generally good enough on most things. Just don't use them as thought police.While it is a little stale (2013) and things changed after a few more liberal editors and the 2016 election, Snopes does do a reasonably good enough job at debunking the easy and non-political stuff. Even if they miss on a few, or are slow to correct others. At least for the skeptical libertarian. Just don't use them as thought police.
• 2015.07.21 Holistic Doctors - Erin Elizabeth complains about how snopes wronged her, but gets lots of facts wrong, even if some of her complaints are legit.Erin Elizabeth of HealthNutNews complains about how snopes wronged her, with getting lots of little factoids wrong. Not sure who I believe in this one, but Erin definitely went full vendetta on many mistakes she found not only in misrepresenting her article, but in others. And at least a few of her complaints seem legit.
• 2016.05.02 Hillary and the Rapist - Hillary for laughing about getting a child rapist off when she was a defense lawyer.One complaint was against Hillary for laughing about getting a child rapist off when she was a defense lawyer. This was true. Even lefty-FactCheck admitted it was true. But Snopes, WaPo and Politifact parsed words, inferred intent (It was just a nervous laugh), and went beyond fact-checking into water-carrier status.
• 2016.07.26 Flags at DNC - American flag was conspicuously physically absent on the set of the Democratic National Convention on its first day.Conservative media outlets (like DC) noted that the American flag was conspicuously physically absent on the set of the Democratic National Convention on its first day. Left-of-center Politifact admitted it too. But liberal media went into full-spin mode.
• 2016.12.22 Embezzling, Hookers, Divorce (oh my) - Snopes CEO/Founder (David Mikkelson) embezzled money to rent hookers.Just because David Mikkelson (Snopes CEO/Founder) was caught up in an unsavory divorce, or embezzled money to rent hookers, and they have no hard defined editorial standards, doesn't mean everything they wrote is crap. Most of it is fine. But the point is that I'm unconvinced that they're the paragon of moral, ethical and quality standards.
• 2017.01.20 Scrubbed Climate Change and LGBT - The left media went nuts over a normal operating procedure to replace old WH website with new. Are they fools or frauds?ZOMG: Minutes in, and Trump is purging the Government (White House Website) of LGBT and Climate Change info: OrangeMan Bad! Only, this normal operating procedure to archive the old White House pages and start fresh (it happened under Clinton->Bush and Bush->Obama). No retractions, corrections or apologies given.
• 2017.03.05 Rasmea Odeh - The March 8th Terrorist Organized "Day Without A Woman" protest.The March 8th "Day Without A Woman" protest was created by Rasmea: a Palestinian anti-semite terrorist, guilty of a 1969 bombing and murder of 2 in Israel. Snopes took the far left BDS/Palestinian position of using false and debunked excuses for her behavior.
• 2017.04.11 Spicer: Hitler didn't use chemical weapons - Sean Spicer misspoke about Chemical weapons, and quickly fixed it, in the same news conference. The media ignored the fix.Sean Spicer (Press Secretary) misspoke and apologized/corrected himself in the same news-conference (while talking about chemical weapons). Far-left outfits (CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Snopes, Politifact), ignored the correction/clarification and used the gaff as a way to attack Spicer and Trump, and spin a non-story into evidence of why they were a bad administration.
• 2018.12.06 Voted out of Congress - Snopes mis-fact checks a meme about people "voted out of congress", says it's correct, eventhough many were never in congress.A viral claimed “Everyone with an X has since been voted out of Congress.”, but a few members with an X were never in Congress. Snopes still claimed that the “general idea” of the meme was “correct.”
• 2019.03.08 AOC Campaign Finance Scandal - AOC appears to have illegally diverted more than $1M of her campaign funds.AOC and Saikat Chakrabarti (Chief of staff, former campaign chair), appear to have obtained majority control of Justice Democrats PAC in December 2017, raised more than $1.8M (and was responsible for her win), and illegally diverted more than $1M of those funds. This is the Dark Money that AOC ran on curtailing, not to mention potential fraud. The media isn't interested.
• 2019.10.16 Chick-fil-A Uganda - Snopes screws up Fact Checking the Chick-fil-A supports Ugandan's death penalty for homosexuality bill.=Snopes screws up Fact Checking the Chick-fil-A supports Ugandan's death penalty for homosexuality bill. Other than there is no current bill, Chick-fil-a was sponsoring someone else that dropped support for a different org that did that when they found out about that bill (that is long dead).
• Covington High School Confrontation - NYT and MSM published an article claiming HS kids mobbed a Native American and an Indigenous People's march. All false.NYT and MSM published an article claiming Covington HS kids mobbed a Native American and an Indigenous People's march. All false. The truth is the story was almost completely flipped; obnoxious activists attacked the kids for right to life march, got in their face, and they remained calm. Later they sued for Defamation and won, bigly for the FakeNews Medias lies.
• Erica Thomas (D) - Georgia Democrat State Rep (Erica Thomas) falsely claimed that a “white man” called her a “lazy son of a bitch”.To magnify anti-Trumpism, Georgia State Rep Erica Thomas (D) claimed in a sobbing twitter post, that a “white man” called her a “lazy son of a bitch” and told her to “go back to where she came from" at a Publix Grocery store. Then to her surprise the accused anti-Trump, far-left, AOC supporting Cuban (not white), stepped forward and told the real story.
• Fake Facts/Birth of Birthers - Fake Fact checkers exonerated Hillary for originating the Birther movement, incorrectly.Fact checkers (CNN, Politifact, Snopes, FactCheck) answered whether Hillary originated the Birther movement, and exonerated her. It was only her top strategists plan and her campaign staffers, but not her personally -- so they pretended that Trump was lying to imply she had anything to do with creating these rumors.
• Fake Facts/Cal outlaws Religious Freedom - You can have religious liberty, or a Democrat controlled government, but California Bill 2943 shows, not both.You can have religious liberty, or a Democrat controlled government, but as California Assembly Bill 2943 shows, not both. It says no church or individual can practice "conversion therapy", or "pray the gay away". While I don't think those are useful, in a country with religious liberty, you don't outlaw stupid things just because you don't agree.
• Fake Facts/Dems remain seated for Navy Seal - Democrats remained seated for a Navy Seal who gave his life (and his widow). FakeMany Democrats remained seated during Trump's first address to congress in 2017, in protest of his very existence. Fake Fact Checkers tried to spin it for the Democrats favor, but showing a few of them might have stood for a nanosecond, very late, but ignore that most did not.
• FakeNews about Cagegate - This FakeNews fiasco was the fallacy that Trump's new immigration policy was breaking up families and putting kids in cages.This FakeNews fiasco was the fallacy that Trump's new immigration policy was breaking up families and putting kids in cages. The omitted reality was criminals (border jumpers) have always had the kids separated from the adults, as you aren't sure who are parents, and detaining both in the same place risks harm to children. The media even used faked propaganda images from Obama era to sell it.
• Hillary Clinton/Cattlegate: Futures Trading Miracle (1978) - First time Cattle Futures trader Hillary, make a 9,987% returns with perfect trades, Dems claim nothing fishy.First time Cattle Futures trader Hillary, make a 9,987% returns with perfect trades, (done for her, by a scummy lawyer), then she never trades again. She claims she learned how on the Wall Street Journal, which doesn't talk about cattle futures. Democrats and Fake Fact Checkers claim nothing sounds fishy.
• Hillary Clinton/Lootergate (2001) - Hillary was forced to return an estimated $190,000 in stolen White House furniture, china, and artwork.After leaving the White House, Hillary was forced to return an estimated $190,000 in White House furniture, china, and artwork that she had taken. The Clintons water carriers in the media fake "Fact Checked" this and tried to exonerate the Clintons by word parsing or misleading the public on what happened.
• Hillary Clinton/Travelgate (1993) - Clinton friend Harry Thompson created a company and got payola via the WhiteHouse Travel office.Clinton friend Harry Thompson create a new company, and when the WhiteHouse Travel office rightly rebuffed the newcomer, Hillary ignored conflict of interest laws, got involved, gave him a tits $500K no-bid contract. Oh, and used the IRS to harass their enemies/complainers/whistleblowers. The Fake Fact Checkers stayed away from this whole fiasco.
• Hillary Clinton/Troopergate (1980-1993) - Bill Clinton used Arkansas state police to keep an eye out for Hillary or ferry women in and out of the mansion for him.Troopergate was where Bill Clinton used Arkansas state police assigned to his security detail, to keep an eye out for Hillary or ferry women in and out of the Governors mansion for him (as well as keep track of his sexual scoring system). While Hillary was using state troopers to take her to clandestine meetings with Vince Foster at a resort (for an alleged affair).
• Hillary Clinton: Bitch and Liar - Lying, being an angry shrew that yelled a lot, and polls that show more believe in Bigfoot than Hillary's honesty.Lying, being an angry shrew that yelled a lot, and polls that show more believe in Bigfoot (14%) than Hillary's honesty (11%). The Whitehouse staff, Secret Service, known as 'the Lady Macbeth of Little Rock", her household cook said, "The devil’s in that woman". Is everyone out to get this poor innocent altruist saint? Or is there some grains of truth?
• Hillary Clinton: Fired from Watergate (1974) - "fired" for corrupt and unethical behavior from the Staff of House Judiciary Committee during Watergate.Appointed to Staff of House Judiciary Committee during Watergate. She was "fired" for corrupt and unethical behavior, according to lifelong democrats in charge of the house investigation Dan Calbrese and Jerry Zeifman. FakeFacts focus hairsplitting that he technically he could not "fire her", only recommend she be removed. And she was.
• Ilhan Omar/Married her brother - There's a rumor that she married her brother (Ahmed Hirsi) to get around immigration law.There's a rumor that she married her brother (Ahmed Hirsi) to get around immigration law. There is no doubt that something extremely suspicious and illegal (immigration fraud) appears to be going on, and the media has been known for some time. But she won't answer questions about it and attacks anyone who asks as racist.
• NOOA Temp Fraud - Mann and his faked Hockey Stick, is not the only group caught altering the historical record.Mann and his faked Hockey Stick, is not the only group caught altering the historical record. NOOA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) was taken over by far left anti-Science polemics, and they got caught altering that record for political purposes. They wiped out the 1930s hottest years being to make today look worse.
• Omar Mateen/Not a Democrat (Snopes) - Snopes pretends that Registered Democrat (Pulse Nightclub Shooter Omar Mateen) might not actually be a Democrat.Snopes does mental gymnastics to pretend that a Registered Democrat (Omar Mateeen: Pulse Nightclub Shooter) might have changed parties in the last few months. So we don't know that he's a Democrat, just because he's been one his entire life, so far. (That's their version of a "Fact Check".
• Panhandling - There's a saying, you get what you incentivize. If you pay people to be poor, you'll get more poor...There's a saying, you get what you incentivize. So if you pay people to be poor, it's amazing how many people will suddenly become poor. An example is this panhandler that makes $1,000 a weekend in Texas, by pretending to be homeless and wheelchair bound. He has a home and walks just fine.
• RealRace/OPRF Race Based Grading - Far-left Snopes claims it's false, but witnesses imply otherwise. And the left denies when caught.Far-left Snopes claims it's false, but witnesses imply otherwise. And the left denies when caught. So I don't know if this is true. What I do know, is that they'd act/say this stuff if it was. (Just like they deny CRT when caught doing CRT). And Snopes wastes more time attacking the source, than looking at the evidence.
• Snopes/Trump Rally Violence - Fake Fact Checkers claimed Trump promoted violence at his rally's. The omitted context was Hillary and the Democrats paid violent protestors to go to Trump Rally's and make scenes or beat people up. Trump basically said if his side defended themselves (hit them back), he'd pay their legal bills as a snark. Unprovoked assault and self-defense are different things legally.Fake Fact Checkers claimed Trump promoted violence at his rally's. The omitted context was Hillary and the Democrats paid violent protestors to go to Trump Rally's and make scenes or beat people up. Trump basically said if his side defended themselves (hit them back), he'd pay their legal bills as a snark. Unprovoked assault and self-defense are different things legally.
• Trump Rally Violence - False claims that Trump advocated unprovoked violence at his rally's when he advocated for defending against violence.There's claims that Trump advocated violence at his rally's -- but that's not the whole context. Here's the facts: Hillary and the Democrats paid violent protestors to go to Trump Rally's and beat people up. Trump responded to that with a Trumpism that he'd pay the legal fees of anyone that defended themselves and roughed them up back, on the way out.
• YETI Coolers - In the wake of Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, YETI Coolers cut off ties to the NRA Foundation, which caused backlash.YETI Coolers cut off ties to the NRA Foundation (the shooting sports division), but wouldn't say why (coincidentally timed with Delta and REI dropping the NRA after school shooting). The NRA's open letter, lead to a backlash amongst shooting enthusiasts. Yeti claimed NRA/shooters misunderstood. The NRA's reply to that sounded a lot like: {cough:bullshit!}.

Conclusion

The point isn't that snopes is untrustworthy, or partisan: they are, but not much worse than most places... but that's not a high bar. Critical thinking (skepticism) is required on every piece.

It isn't that you shouldn't trust them just because they hire biased partisan lefties as editors: they do, but some of their work on many or even most topics is still OK. But that doesn't change the places/topics where they fall way short. And partisan lefties will filter future hires through an SJW lens, demanding "cultural fit" (destroying intellectual diversity) and making them decay over time. And the talent pool coming out of J-school, or Newspapers, was already biased to begin with. So they don't deserve the authority they have in the present, and that will only get worse over time.

The problem is that as their standards have dropped, their responsibilities and impact have increased. Google, Facebook and others, are using them to filter junk news from the real news, or effect rankings -- and Snopes just doesn't have or deserve the chops for that kind of stuff. Once others are using their worst articles as excuses to warn, filter, block, demonitize, promote, or ban people -- that's an issue. If you use 1 leftist source and 9 non-partisan ones to "fact check" blindly, you'll still get a leftward bias. When you use 9 leftist ones and one non-partisan, it's worse. So the problem is that linking and trusting snopes is an "appeal to authority" or "appeal to popularity" fallacy. Just because most of Snopes articles aren't complete crap, doesn't mean the one you're sourcing isn't. Thus while I'm fine with them as a casual fact check site, I'm terrified of them as the thought-police for the Internet.

Overall, they're hit and miss, and slowly getting worse over time. When they're on, they're not bad. When they are off, they don't always fix things in above board ways that would fit good journalistic standards. Many fair articles don't make the completely hacky and unfair ones any more legitimate: skepticism is required. You can be a stand up guy 99% of the time, but if you rape one goat... well, we have caught Snopes being a goat-defiler on too many occasions to be a trustworthy source.

---

🔗 More

Organizations Organizations that I felt the need to comment on (more often on the negs than the positives). But there's good/bad in all.

Media Organizations News, Newspapers, Websites, Radio, TV, and organizations that convey information the public.

Bias Disproportionate weight for or against a person, place, idea or thing, usually ignoring evidence against.

Slacktivism Slacktivism is about pretending you're fully woke, but never being able to measure up. If you are fully woke, you are soon out of business.

Social Justice Warriors SJWs: When you are not able to refute the arguments, bully people into silence. Social Justice is injustice.

🔗 Links

• http://www.snopes.com
• Wikipedia:Snopes.com
• FactChecking the Fact Checkers: https://www.justfactsdaily.com/?s=snopes&submit=Search
• https://foodbabe.com/2017/02/24/do-you-trust-snopes-you-wont-after-reading-how-they-work-with-monsanto-operatives/

Tags: Organizations  Media  Bias  Slacktivism  SJW