The humorless scolds at Snopes have stepped in it again, this time emailing the White House to ascertain whether President Trump is aware that The Babylon Bee is a satire website after he retweeted one of their articles on Wednesday.
No, seriously.
It all started when Jenna Ellis, senior White House legal counsel, tweeted out a Babylon Bee story with the comment, “The Bee mocking the Dems: ‘We have found Trump guilty of absolutely nothing, but we already started this whole process and it would look bad to back out now, so here we are.'” She added several lighthearted emojis and everyone thought it was hilarious, including President Trump, who retweeted Ellis, along with four thousand other Twitter users.
The Bee mocking the Dems: “We have found Trump guilty of absolutely nothing, but we already started this whole process and it would look bad to back out now, so here we are." 😂👏👏👏 https://t.co/wPpxk0Oz2o
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) December 10, 2019
So everyone had a good laugh and moved on with their lives.
Nah, just kidding. Let me rephrase that: Everyone but Dan Evon, an intrepid reporter for Snopes, had a good laugh and moved on with their lives.
Adam Ford, founder of the Bee, reported at Disrn (his recently launched news site), that Evon actually emailed the White House to ask about the tweet.
“Snopes’ Dan Evon, who has previously collided with The Babylon Bee when he assigned nefarious motives to a satirical Bee article in a supposedly objective fact-check, prompting a threat of legal action from the comedy outlet, sent his concerns to the White House in an email reviewed by Disrn,” Ford explained.
Here’s what the breathless crack reporter from Snopes had a burning desire to know: “President Trump recently retweeted a post from @JennaEllisEsq containing a fake quote from an entertainment article. Was President Trump aware that this quote was fake when he sent it? If so, why wasn’t it accompanied by a message labeling the quote as fiction?”
Uh, yeah, Dan, everyone (who doesn’t work for Snopes) is “aware” that the ubiquitous Babylon Bee is a purveyor of satire, and no one except the very earnest and sober-minded journalists at Snopes believes all jokes must be explained and labeled with a disclaimer for those who have been diagnosed with a humor-related psychological disorder.
“This is yet another idiotic instance of ‘fact-checking’ the president for his excellent sense of humor,” Jenna Ellis told Disrn. “The fake news media refuses to show the wonderfully kind, fun, and generous side of our president. Instead, they pompously pretend they have to take every tweet or joke at a rally seriously.” She rightly noted that “America loves [Trump’s] honesty and direct calling out of fake news.”
Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee, told Disrn: “I’m not surprised by this at all. They don’t like conservatives, so they’re intent on painting us as a fake news outlet, rather than the well-known satire publication that we are.”
Dillon said Snopes is concerned that the article may have duped Trump, “or that the president might be duping others because he didn’t attach a disclaimer” to the article. “It’s just one more example of their bristling at humor they don’t like,” he added.
It’s not just conservatives Snopes doesn’t like. They hate humor and they’re ideologically opposed to fun—they actually excel at sucking the fun out of literally everything. (Go ahead, make my day and fact-check that, Snopes.)
My advice to the folks at Snopes: Lighten up, laugh a little. It’ll do your hearts, which are two sizes too small, good.
Addendum: Twitter had a lot of fun with this tonight. Our friends at Twitchy have recorded the hilarity for the annals of history.
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