Snopes' latest blunder has everyone talking. They're under fire for a left-tilted bias.
Curtis Houck from NewsBusters puts it bluntly: "Snopes? They're like the know-it-all kid in class that everyone secretly mocks."
Snopes, usually a media darling, once teamed up with Facebook for truth missions. They're a favorite of CNN, The New York Times, and more.
But they slipped up this weekend. They flip-flopped on a fact-check about President Biden's hard hat fiasco. The President was caught wearing it backwards in a photo.
First, Snopes defended Biden, saying he wore it right. Social media erupted. Hard hats have the strap in the back, they argued. Snopes had to backtrack.
Their updated take? "Okay, maybe Biden did wear it backwards."
Mark Hemingway from RealClearInvestigations chimes in: "If it were a Republican with the hat issue, Snopes wouldn't bother."
Founded in 1994, Snopes has shifted from urban legends to political fact-checking. Critics accuse them of leaning left.
They've had to backtrack before. Remember when they fact-checked conservative satire site The Babylon Bee? They're now rethinking how they handle humor.
Houck sees the hard hat incident as proof of Snopes' disconnect. "They don't get the American worker. They target conservative satire while letting leftist humor slide."
Snopes once falsely implicated Elon Musk's Starlink in a submersible's disappearance. They had to step back from "true" to "unproven," then to "false."
Musk's take on Snopes? "It's a con."
They also faced heat from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Snopes labeled a fake banned book list as satire, not false. DeSantis' office accused them of double standards.
In 2021, Snopes got tangled in controversy over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Capitol riot story. They said claims of her exaggerating were "mostly false," yet admitted she wasn't in the main Capitol building.
That year, Snopes co-founder David Mikkelson was caught plagiarizing 54 articles. The New York Post editorial board didn't hold back: "Snopes is a big source of misinformation."
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