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Left-wing mainstream media outlets and their social media allies continue to conduct fact-checks on satire, despite how partisan doing so makes them look.
But will they fact-check the U.S. Navy too?
The latest fact-check involves The Babylon Bee, a conservative Christian satire that has faced multiple seemingly partisan fact-checks since its inception in 2016. The evidence of the partisanship lies in the fact that the media never fact check The Onion, a fellow satire site whose content leans demonstrably to the left.
On Tuesday, the Bee published a story titled, “With Moon Water Announcement, Trump Proposes Space Navy.” It was clearly meant as a joke.
Later that same day, a satirical Facebook page by the name of “The United States Space Force” picked up the story and shared it to its page.
Look:
#SpaceForce #SemperSky #SpaceSeamen
Posted by The United States Space Force on Tuesday, October 27, 2020
While there were no warnings on the post about the screenshot being satire, the page’s “About” section clearly states, “This is a parody page and in no way associated with the actual ‘U.S. Space Force.'”
Look:
Anyone who viewed the post should have known they were viewing satire. In fact, if you scroll through the top comments, you’ll see that nobody took the post seriously.
Nevertheless, watch what happened to the page’s post:
This where the media enter the picture.
If you click on “See Why,” Facebook justifies its fact-check by citing a report from USA Today, a mainstream outlet that in recent months has falsely accused the Trump campaign of using Nazi symbolism in its swag, and sought to effectively doxx everybody who’d attended Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination hearing.
“The claim that Trump proposed a Space Navy is FALSE, based on our research. The claim originated on the Babylon Bee, a satirical website. There is no evidence that Trump made any sort of proposal after water was discovered on the sunlit surface of the moon,” the outlet’s official fact-check reads.
The fact-check was published Thursday. The following day, The Babylon Bee — which had shared the “Moon Water Announcement” story to its Twitter page on Tuesday — became aware of the fact-check and chose to respond with a dose of sarcasm.
Look:
With Moon Water Announcement, Trump Proposes Space Navy https://t.co/aG1at5Wp1F
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) October 27, 2020
Sadly, we must retract this one. We’d like to thank @USATODAY for calling us out with this fact check. We will strive to do better. pic.twitter.com/5tk5ApSQjv
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) October 30, 2020
Our writer @IMAO_ is responsible for this one. We called him into the office and said, “Hey, dummy, boats don’t go in space!”
He said, “Oh. I guess that makes sense. Probably should have looked into that on Google.” He then committed seppuku to preserve his journalistic honor.
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) October 30, 2020
And this is where the U.S. Navy enters the picture.
At 5:15 pm this Friday, a couple hours after The Babylon Bee responded to USA Today’s fact-check, the Navy decided to get in on the satire too.
Look:
To infinite-sea and beyond. 🚀 @NASA #nasa #usnavy #navyreadiness pic.twitter.com/0wK6wc4kue
— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) October 30, 2020
So … is USA Today going to fact-check the Navy!?
As of Saturday, the left-wing news outlet hadn’t fact-checked the Navy yet, though it had shared its fact-check of The Babylon Bee to Twitter. Bad move …
Look at the response it provoked on Twitter below:
The claim: Trump proposed a Space Navy after water was discovered on the moon.
Our rating: False
(The claim originated on a satirical website.) https://t.co/ecXsbpWjm4— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) October 30, 2020
You fact check a site that you know is satirical?! What is wrong with you?
— Sebastien Meunier (@sbmeunier) October 30, 2020
maybe USA Today is satire
— Fiddling Whiskey (@BoySnakey) October 30, 2020
Now do Hunters laptops since you have time to fact check satire.
— Trunalimunumaprzure Covfef (@Vandaniman) October 30, 2020
I think your staff has way too much time on its hands when you’re fact checking known satirical sites. The @TheOnion next @USATODAY
— Meg Glover (@Meg_nificent93) October 30, 2020
Too bad you can’t spend 5 seconds to verify everything about Hunter Biden’s emails is true.
Guess you’re too busy.
— Daren Sorenson (@DarenSorenson) October 31, 2020
This you? pic.twitter.com/C1Z2Msxt1b
— Chris (@chriswithans) October 30, 2020
Meanwhile, The Babylon Bee has since retracted his retraction.
Look:
Wait, hold on. We’re retracting our retraction.https://t.co/s6mCrwqE9N
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) October 30, 2020
Jokes aside, what makes USA Today’s fact-check particularly insidious is that people are paying a tangible price for its seemingly partisan decision to fact-check satire.
As noted earlier, “The United States Space Force” Facebook page was hit with a fact-check because of USA Today. The problem is that according to Facebook’s official policies, fact-checks come with penalties.
“Once a fact-checker rates a piece of content as False, Altered or Partly False, it will appear lower in News Feed, be filtered out of Explore on Instagram, and be featured less prominently in Feed and Stories. This significantly reduces the number of people who see it. We also reject ads with content that has been rated by fact-checkers,” the policy reads.
The policy also warns that pages that are fact-checked may suffer “some restrictions, including having their distribution reduced. They may also have their ability to monetize and advertise removed, and their ability to register as a news Page removed for a given time period.”
And so to recap, a Facebook page that’s clearly labeled “Satire” is being punished because the conservative satire it shared was fact-checked by the media …
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Vivek@bizpacreview.com
V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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