The Babylon Bee

The Babylon Bee is a conservative Christian news satire website that publishes satirical articles on religion, politics, current events, and well-known public figures. It has been referred to in the media as a Christian or evangelical version of The Onion.[1][2][3][4]

The Babylon Bee
TypeSatirical publication
FormatWebsite
Owner(s)Seth Dillon
Founder(s)Adam Ford
Editor-in-chiefKyle Mann
Founded2016 (2016)
HeadquartersJupiter, Florida, U.S.
WebsiteBabylonBee.com

History

The Babylon Bee was created by Adam Ford and was launched on March 1, 2016.[3][5][6][7] Shortly after launch, the site made headlines for mocking the "health and wealth" theology of Jan Crouch, founder of Trinity Broadcasting Network, on the day of her death.[1][8]

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey battered Houston, Texas, causing widespread flooding. The Babylon Bee leveraged the context of the Houston floods to satirically criticize televangelist Joel Osteen with a headline that read: "Joel Osteen Sails Luxury Yacht Through Flooded Houston To Pass Out Copies Of 'Your Best Life Now'." The article went viral, prompting a fact check from Snopes.[9]

In 2018, Ford sold the website to Seth Dillon, who Ford described as "a successful businessman who uses his resources for Kingdom purposes."[10] In a public announcement published on his personal website, Ford cited several reasons for the sale, including his discomfort with the power wielded by social media companies like Facebook over creators and their perceived anti-conservative and anti-Christian bias. He wrote that "Facebook has the power to kill publishers, and they do, not only based on publishing techniques, but based on worldview. Just think about that."[10] At the time of the website's sale, Kyle Mann, who had been head writer since September 2016, became editor-in-chief.[10]

In January 2020, CNN reporter Donie O'Sullivan drew backlash for suggesting that the Bee capitalizes on confusion and circumvents Facebook's rules against disseminating misinformation by "burying" disclaimers that explain the site's content is satirical.[11] The Bee responded by publishing an article that mocked CNN's credibility as a news source, and the Bee's CEO Dillon did more of the same in an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight.[12][13]

In October 2020, a satirical news story by the Bee claiming that Twitter had been shut down to protect Joe Biden from negative coverage was retweeted by President Donald Trump, who condemned the incident described in the story as a case of leftist censorship.[14] This event prompted The New York Times to question whether the Bee "traffic[s] in misinformation under the guise of comedy."[4] A few days later, Facebook demonetized the Babylon Bee for violating its community standards with a post that allegedly incited violence.[15] Bee CEO Dillon announced the incident on Twitter, generating media attention. In response, Facebook apologized and reinstated the account.[16] In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Mann criticized Facebook for regulating content in a rigid, automatic way that leaves little room for comedy.[17]

The Babylon Bee said in October 2020 that the site receives about 8 million visitors a month.[18]

Content

The Babylon Bee takes on the tone and format of a traditional news publication.[1] Rolling Stone described the site in 2020 as "something of a social media phenomenon on the right" and said that "its most popular posts poke fun at perceived liberal ideology and political correctness, and many are explicitly misogynistic or transphobic". Also according to Rolling Stone, the Bee "initially started out as something of an equal opportunity offender, but over the past four years the Babylon Bee has evolved into a more explicitly anti-left, pro-Trump publication."[19] In a Washington Post profile of the site and its founder, Bob Smietana observed that "The Bee excels at poking fun at the small idiosyncrasies of believers, especially evangelical Protestants."[5] The purpose of the site, according to its founder Adam Ford, is not just to evoke laughter, but to give cause for self-reflection. "It's important to look at what we're doing, to 'examine ourselves.' Satire acts like an overhead projector, taking something that people usually ignore and projecting it up on the wall for everyone to see. It forces us to look at things we wouldn't normally look at and makes us ask if we're okay with them."[6]

The Babylon Bee has published a book satirizing the Christian self-help industry: How to Be a Perfect Christian: Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living.[3] Founder Adam Ford retained ownership of the book when he left the company.[10]

In November of 2020, the Bee released a self-published collection of their greatest hits: The Sacred Texts of The Babylon Bee, Volume 1.[20]

Snopes.com controversy

The satirical news articles presented by The Babylon Bee have been fact-checked by Snopes repeatedly, and some of these fact-checks have been controversial. For example, in March 2018, The Babylon Bee published an article alleging that CNN was using an industrial-sized washing machine to "spin" the news. Snopes fact-checked the article, rating it "false." Facebook then cited this fact-check in a warning message to The Babylon Bee, threatening to limit their content distribution and monetization.[21] Ford tweeted a screenshot of the warning message to his followers, drawing public attention to the matter. Facebook quickly apologized, with the statement that "there’s a difference between false news and satire. This was a mistake and should not have been rated false in our system. It’s since been corrected and won’t count against the domain in any way."[22]

In July 2019, Erica Thomas, a Georgia State Congresswoman born in the United States, claimed to be told to "go back to where she came from" by a man in a grocery store. It was later found that witnesses did not corroborate her story, and the man in question was a Democrat who claimed he was only upset because of the number of groceries she brought to an express checkout lane. The Congresswoman retracted her initial recollection of the incident. The Babylon Bee published an article referencing the incident titled "Georgia Lawmaker Claims Chick-Fil-A Employee Told Her To Go Back To Her Country, Later Clarifies He Actually Said 'My Pleasure'", which Snopes rated "false". They also this time suggested that the article was deliberately deceptive, rather than genuinely satirical.[23] Ford responded on Twitter, highlighting what he deemed to be problematic wording in the fact-check.[24] The Babylon Bee also released a statement, calling the fact-check a "smear" that was "both dishonest and disconcerting."[25] The statement concluded by saying a law firm had been retained to represent The Babylon Bee because "Snopes appears to be actively engaged in an effort to discredit and deplatform us." After receiving some backlash and a formal demand letter from The Babylon Bee's attorney, Snopes made revisions to the wording of the fact check and added an explanatory editor's note.[26]

The Bee's chief executive, Seth Dillon, appeared on Fox News in August 2019 to discuss the feud between the Bee and Snopes. He said The Babylon Bee must take the matter seriously "because social networks, which we depend on for our traffic, have relied upon fact-checking sources in the past to determine what's fake news and what isn't. In cases where [Snopes] is calling us fake news and lumping us in with them rather than saying this is satire, that could actually damage us. It could put our business in jeopardy."[23]

Snopes' co-founder David Mikkelson acknowledged to The New York Times that their fact-check was poorly written, but denied trying to discredit The Babylon Bee.[23] In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Mikkelson stated, "the question you should be asking is not: 'why is Snopes addressing material from a particular site so often?' But, 'what is it about that site that makes its content trigger the fact-check threshold?'"[27]

In August 2019, Snopes announced a new rating for satire sites called "labeled satire".[28] Articles from The Babylon Bee that were previously rated "false" have been updated with the new rating.[29]

Not the Bee

Not the Bee, distinguished from The Babylon Bee but created in June 2020 by the same creators, is a non-satirical site that reports on news stories and commentary.[30][31]

See also

References
  1. "Christian parody site catches hellfire for mocking death of TBN founder". Fox News. June 3, 2016. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
  2. Sanneh, Kelefa (October 31, 2016). "The New Evangelical Moral Minority". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
  3. Hemingway, Mark (May 4, 2018). "The Sharp Sting of the 'Babylon Bee'". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
  4. Roose, Kevin (October 16, 2020). "How The Babylon Bee, a Right-Wing Satire Site, Capitalizes on Confusion". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  5. Smietana, Bob (April 4, 2016). "Fake news that's good for the soul". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  6. Darling, Daniel (April 29, 2016). "The Babylon Bee's Adam Ford Says the Church Needs Laughter". Christianity Today. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  7. "Christian News Satire Site Launches". The Babylon Bee. March 1, 2016. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  8. Foust, Michael (May 31, 2016). "Fans criticize Babylon Bee for lampooning TBN's Jan Crouch same day she died". The Christian Examiner. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  9. "Joel Osteen Sails Luxury Yacht Through Flooded Houston to Pass out Copies of His Book?". Snopes.com. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  10. Ford, Adam. "I sold The Babylon Bee and am no longer running it". Adam4d.com. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  11. Wulfsohn, Joseph (January 6, 2020). "CNN reporter sounds alarm over conservative satirical site, gets pummeled on Twitter". Fox News. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  12. Wulfsohn, Joseph (January 7, 2020). "Babylon Bee stings CNN with satirical article: There's only room for 'one fake news site'". Fox News. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  13. Creitz, Charles (January 17, 2020). "'Babylon Bee' CEO: 'How funny is it that CNN is coming after us for spreading disinformation?'". Fox News. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  14. Jackson, David (October 16, 2020). "Trump retweets satirical news story about Joe Biden and Twitter". USA Today. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  15. Wulfsohn, Joseph (October 20, 2020). "Facebook removes Babylon Bee satire mocking Sen. Hirono's treatment of Amy Barrett, says it 'incites violence'". Fox News. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  16. Varney, James (October 22, 2020). "Facebook apologizes to Babylon Bee; reinstates Christian satirical site it demonetized". The Washington Times. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  17. Mann, Kyle (October 21, 2020). "Opinion | Facebook Has No Sense of Humor". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
  18. Goldberg, Emma (October 11, 2020). "What 'The Babylon Bee' Thinks Is So Funny About Liberals". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  19. Dickson, E. J. (October 16, 2020). "What Is the Babylon Bee? Trump Retweeted the Satirical Website". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  20. "The Sacred Texts of The Babylon Bee, Volume 1". Babylon Bee Store. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
  21. Wemple, Erik (March 5, 2018). "Opinion | Facebook working on approach to classifying satirical news pieces". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  22. Wemple, Erik (March 2, 2018). "Opinion | Facebook admits mistake in flagging satire about CNN spinning the news with a washing machine". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  23. Chokshi, Niraj (August 3, 2019). "Satire or Deceit? Christian Humor Site Feuds With Snopes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  24. Ford, Adam (July 25, 2019). "So @snopes fact-checked @TheBabylonBee again. But this time it's particularly egregious and, well, kind of disturbing". @Adam4d. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  25. "The Babylon Bee Newsletter | Important Announcement".
  26. "Did a Georgia Lawmaker Claim a Chick-fil-A Employee Told Her to Go Back to Her Country?". Snopes.com. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  27. Broderick, Ryan (July 31, 2019). "A Christian Satire Site Says Fact-Checkers Are Helping De-Platform Conservatives". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  28. "Let's Make Fact-Checking Even Better". Snopes. August 16, 2019. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  29. "the babylon bee Archives". Snopes.com. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  30. Flood, Brian (October 26, 2020). "Babylon Bee CEO says liberals are 'threatened by the effectiveness of satire' so they attempt to silence it". Fox News.
  31. Varney, James (January 3, 2021). "Satirical Babylon Bee: 'Paper of record' for conservatives". The Washington Times.
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