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CEO of Fact-Checking Website Snopes Suspended for Lying

The co-founder of the fact-checking website Snopes, David Mikkelson, is a self-proclaimed arbiter of truth. That is, of course, when he’s not reportedly plagiarizing.

A recent BuzzFeed investigation discovered that between 2015 and 2019, the CEO wrote and published at least 54 plagiarized articles containing material from outlets such as The Guardian and the Los Angeles Times. Snopes conducted an internal review confirming the allegations and subsequently suspended Mikkelson from his editorial duties. He remains an officer and 50 percent shareholder of the company. . .

Mikkelson often deceived readers under a pseudonym he originally created “as a joke intended to mislead the trolls and conspiracy theorists who frequently targeted the site and its writers in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election,” BuzzFeed reported.

“The results of our internal audit confirmed that I engaged in multiple serious copyright violations of content that Snopes didn’t have rights to use,” Mikkelson said in a statement. “There is no excuse for my serious lapses in judgment. I am sorry. I have given full authority to our managing editor, Doreen Marchionni, to take any measures needed to address these issues.” (Read more from “CEO of Fact-Checking Website Snopes Suspended for Lying” HERE)

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PANTS ON FIRE: Snopes Exposed as ‘Sneaky Liar’ for Misleading Bible Story

A variety of people, ranging from political centrists to conservatives, have increasingly looked with skepticism on the supposedly unbiased “fact-checkers” at Snopes, as the outlet has long displayed a decidedly left-leaning bias in its pronouncements of what is true and false.

The suspicion that Snopes has a heavy liberal bias just received a significant boost in the case of the outlet’s take on California Assembly Bill 2943. The law, currently working its way through the state legislature, would prohibit “sexual orientation change efforts” — referred to by the left as “gay conversion therapy” — on any resident in the state by any other resident if any sort of monetary transaction or exchange of goods or services is involved. . .

As noted by Snopes, the bill’s opponents argue a literal and logical reading of the bill would lead one to believe that the law would effectively prohibit the sale of Bibles in the state, as the Holy Word of God obviously declares homosexuality to be a sin and urges individuals not to engage in such behavior.

Of course, Snopes dismissed that worry out of hand and declared it not just “false,” but “demonstrably and clearly false” as the bill makes no mention of the Bible, Christianity or any religion at all.

However, in a story exposing Snopes as a “sneaky liar” in regard to its coverage of the California bill, The Federalist pointed out the outlet was at best being disingenuous, and at worst outright lying with its assessment of the concerns surrounding the law. Indeed, the broad wording of the legislation would certainly lend itself to the worrisome interpretation. (Read more from “PANTS ON FIRE: Snopes Exposed as ‘Sneaky Liar’ for Misleading Bible Story” HERE)

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