8 ms·
Snopes is in danger of closing its doors due to a business dispute
- Boothroid 9y agoSnopes does seem to be struggling with impartiality recently, so I don't feel as bad about this as I otherwise would.
- gumby 9y agoAre you sure, or are you just seeing more articles that disagree with your preconceptions? I don't see it, but it could be that I am in a bit of a bubble, so I ask in the hope of checking that.
- egberts1 9y agoYep. In a bubble, you are.
- gumby 9y agoCould you give some examples?
- doctorless 9y agoIt's a little bit of both, honestly. They have definitely taken a strong political position as of late, which has resulted in instances where they've ignored legitimate sources that agreed with the rumor they are trying to dispel, and allowed sources suffering from "citogenesis"-like qualities because it agreed with their views. I look forward to a future snopes-like site which is completely impartial, but unfortunately impartiality is very difficult to exhibit when the subject matter is frequently very subjective.
- valuearb 9y agoCitation please.
- danjoc 9y agoSnopes labeled this entirely false: http://www.snopes.com/2015/06/22/dylann-roof-burger-king/ http://www.snopes.com/2015/06/22/dylann-roof-burger-king/ Dylan Roof was treated to Burger King. Snopes seized on the wording "taken to" Burger King, and give it the big red X. Not mostly false, not mixed, but entirely false. That's all most people will ever see. They won't read down the page. Confirmation bias has been confirmed at that point. Roof was given body armor, Burger King, and additional guards. Freddie Grey wasn't so lucky. That was the original point of the article Snopes wouldn't link to. http://thesource.com/2015/06/21/police-chief-says-dylann-roof-was-taken-to-burger-king-shortly-after-arrest/ http://thesource.com/2015/06/21/police-chief-says-dylann-roo... Snopes is that guy on a message board who thinks he won the argument by being a grammar Nazi. That's what people who don't like Snopes find infuriating.
- tzs 9y agoYou seem to think that "taken to" vs. "brought food from" is a minor or insignificant difference. It is not. People in custody must be provided with food and water. If a suspect is being held somewhere where food is not readily available on the premises, it is normal and expected that someone will be sent out to get food. What is not normal is to take the suspect out to get food. The headline of the article at The Source says he was "taken to" Burger King. As you yourself noted, most people don't read down the page. It's that headline that gets spread through tweets and social media. Even if people do read down the page at The Source, they won't get the mistaken impression that Roof was taken to Burger King dispelled, because further in they say he "was treated to a meal at Burger King". They also say he "was arrested, strapped with a protective bulletproof vest, then treated to burgers and fries", which gives the impression that that he was taken to the food (hence the need for the vest), rather than the food being brought to him. Maybe The Source did not intend to mislead, but in fact they did, as can be seen by looking at other articles and social media reports that repeated the "taken to" Burger King narrative, which mostly seem to trace back to The Source article. I think you also may be misunderstanding the scope of Snopes' "false" rating. They are not saying everything in The Source story is false. They are specifically addressing whether or not Roof was taken to Burger King, because that's what was being spread via multiple other outlets and on social media. That is what they are saying is "false". And they are right.
- kej 9y agoDo you have any specific examples?
- Boothroid 9y agoStrongly pro-Clinton/anti-Trump flavour recently, and I say this as someone not based in the US and thus with no real stake in the topic.
- sumedh 9y agoCan you post some examples?
- jack9 9y agoMy first indication something was wrong, was when Snopes made a determination about Hillary that smelled of journalistic corruption. http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-freed-child-rapist-laughed-about-it/ http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-freed-child-rapist-lau... http://www.factcheck.org/2016/06/clintons-1975-rape-case/ http://www.factcheck.org/2016/06/clintons-1975-rape-case/ Snopes gave their own interpretation of the facts and intent as context, rather than the factual details which lined up ("mostly true" in other matters). I like the idea of an impartial fact checking body, but this partisan bend has gotten worse over time. Factcheck is at least able to recognize that much of the "fake news" is about misinterpretation, rather than the easily abused double-plus-good simplification that Snopes adopted for the ignorant masses (I can only assume). YMMV
- sumedh 9y agoThanks, looks like some Clinton supporters are downvoting us :)
- justforFranz 9y agoOMFG. Can a smart person please archive the site in case these dummies can't come to an agreement? This is spectacularly bad timing considering how many of our institutions that trade in truth are being attacked.
- ThrustVectoring 9y agoThey're getting attacked from both sides, too. The authoritative this-is-how-things-are voice is extraordinarily tempting to influence through agenda pushing. See: Wikipedia's Gamergate controversy article.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- peterburkimsher 9y agoLet's get Archive Team on it. I'll suggest it on IRC now, I suggest you do the same. http://archiveteam.org http://archiveteam.org
- Hambonetasty 9y agoHoly Freakin' Snopes.
- Shivetya 9y agoTIL you can hide domain registration and of two companies which aid in this. To be honest this concerns me more than the fate of the website.
- cratering 9y agoIt's more than just two companies. Many, if not most, registrars offer this as an option when you purchase a domain.
- egberts1 9y agoI smell a divorce brewing between the Mikkelson couple.
- wldcordeiro 9y agoThe article says there was a divorce and Wikipedia indicates that they've been divorced for nearly three years.
- retrogradeorbit 9y agoIn the divorce papers you can read how the founder embezzled funds to spend on prostitutes, http://gotnews.com/boom-wesearchr-mike-cernovich-release-800-pages-nasty-snopes-divorce-records-public-online/ http://gotnews.com/boom-wesearchr-mike-cernovich-release-800...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- procrastin 9y agowho knew zdnet was still a website
- andriesm 9y agoI am happy to see them die. How can you claim to be an independent fact checker when you are this dishonest. Politifact equally biased and sometimes outright lying.