NOT satire: Conservative satire site Babylon Bee demands NYT retract 'defamatory' attack equating its humor to 'misinformation'

Tom Parker
Reclaim the Net
Thu, 03 Jun 2021 18:11 UTC

Independent outlets are increasingly taking The New York Times to task.

Seth Dillon, CEO of Christian news satire site TheBabylon Bee, has announced that his legal counsel has sent a letter to The New York Times demanding the retraction of an article that insinuates The Babylon Bee is "misinformation."

"We took this action because their article was — and remains — defamatory," Dillon tweeted.

The original version of The New York Times' article branded The Babylon Bee "a far-right misinformation site" that "sometimes trafficked in misinformation under the guise of satire."

After pushback from Dillon and The Babylon Bee's founder, Adam Ford, The New York Times replaced these claims with the claim that The Babylon Bee "has feuded with Facebook and the fact-checking site Snopes over whether the site published misinformation or satire."

But Ford slammed the update, describing it as "awful and malicious and precisely worded to be so."

In a subsequent interview, Dillon said The Babylon Bee was considering legal action against The New York Times and argued that mainstream media outlets that accuse The Babylon Bee of being misinformation are doing so in an attempt to get the satire site deplatformed by Big Tech.

"They put this stuff out there and if they can get it to stick, then then we have no platform remaining," Dillon said. "There's not going to be anybody who wants to host our stuff. ... It's an effort to try and cancel us."

And Big Tech's previous treatment of The Babylon Bee highlights how characterizing its content as something other than satire can have a negative impact on its business. Last year, Facebook claimed a Monty Python spoof post from The Babylon Bee was "inciting violence" and demonetized its entire page.

Following the announcement of this legal demand letter, Dillon picked apart The New York Times' update and noted that Snopes had retracted its insinuations that The Babylon Bee was pushing misinofrmation.

"We have not, in fact, feuded with Snopes as to whether we publish satire or misinformation," Dillon wrote. "Snopes retracted that insinuation with an editors' note saying it was never their intent to call our motives into question. It's therefore misleading and malicious to characterize that incident as a feud, as if Snopes ever openly stood by the claim that we are misinformation and not satire."

"For better or worse, the NY Times is considered a 'reliable source,'" Dillon added. "We cannot stand idly by as they act with malice to misrepresent us in ways that jeopardize our business."

Comment: RT points out the absurdity of the Times' claims:

While the Bee can sometimes trick liberal users into believing its headlines are true, supporters have argued its satire is too obvious to need pointing out. Recent examples include 'Gavin Newsom tries to woo Californians back by disguising state as Texas' and 'Study finds most Americans trust Dr. Pepper over Dr. Fauci.'

While the Times did update its story in light of the Babylon Bee's complaints, the Bee remains unsatisfied.

"The update is every bit as damaging (and false) as the original," Dillon said. He is particularly incensed about the claim that the Bee had feuded with fact-checking platform Snopes over whether or not it posted satire.

The Times' controversial coverage of the Bee is nothing new. A story published in October of last year asserted that the site "capitalizes on confusion" and has a "habit of skirting the line between misinformation and satire."