Babylon Bee CEO explodes New York Times over ‘false and defamatory’ claim that the website pretends to be satire

The popular satirical website The Babylon Bee accuses The New York Times of ‘trading in misinformation’ after the Gray Lady reported that the website publishes false information ‘under the guise of satire’ when the website openly admits that it is satire.

The Times made the allegations in a feature, “For political cartoons, the irony was that Facebook did not recognize irony,” which was published Friday. The report set out how Facebook had trouble identifying satire while policing its website for disapproved political content.

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“The Babylon Bee, a right-leaning website, is sometimes traded for misinformation under the guise of satire,” Times Reporter Mike Issac wrote.

Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon blasted the Times for inciting ‘false and defamatory’ rhetoric about his company.

“The claim that we are pretending to be satire to be able to spread uninformed information on social media is false and defamatory,” Dillon told Fox News. “And it’s the falsehood of the allegation that highlights a great deal of irony here: it’s, in fact, The New York Times that trades misinformation, and they do so under the guise of ‘journalism.'”

The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Babylon Bee, sometimes described as a conservative response to The Onion, contained headlines Monday, including: “Mexico installs stairs to keep Biden out,” “Explain how bad mass shooting is until authorities detail of everyone’s skin color, “” What gender are you? Take the quiz “and” Biden visits the southern border to play ‘Despacito’ for migrating children in cages. “

Last year, CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan sounded the alarm after a Babylon Bee article shared the Democrats’ response to the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani more than 500,000 times on Facebook.

“To put this in perspective, it’s the same number of appointments the leading NY Times and CNN stories have had on Facebook over the past week,” O’Sullivan said. tweeted. “Many people who share this ‘satirical’ story on Facebook do not know that it is satire.”

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“Burying an indemnity on your site that says it’s satire ‘seems like a great way to circumvent many of the changes Facebook has made to reduce the spread of clickbait and misinformation,” he said. O’Sullivan elaborated before pointing to Facebook users whose comments suggest they believe the satirical piece.

The CNN reporter was pumped on Twitter, including by Babylon Bee founder Adam Ford. The Bee then sent a piece with the headline ‘CNN Attacks Babylon Bee:’ The Internet is Only Big Enough For One Fake News Site. ‘

According to the joke ‘report’, numerous CNN reporters have complained that their news is ‘much fake’ as that of the Bee.

Dillon believes the Times essentially took a page from CNN’s playbook.

“This is a recurring problem. The constant mischaracterization of our website in the liberal media is a blatant attempt to discredit and diminish us,” Dillon said. “If they can convince the social networks that we are abusing the ‘satire label’, they can shut us down. It’s that simple.”

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Dillon believes the “whole system is ready to support” efforts by liberal activists and news organizations seeking to silence conservative voices.

“Wikipedia, for example, only allows ‘reliable sources’ to determine how a site is characterized. And guess what sources they consider reliable? The New York Times … CNN, etc.,” Dillon said. “The sites we unashamedly misrepresent are considered credible and reprehensible, while sites we value and defend are dismissed as ‘unreliable’.”

Fox A.’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.