The great minds over at the myth-busting website Snopes -- which used to be a decent place to figure out whether your grandma just got duped by the latest Facebook hoax, but has recently become more of a cheap left-wing propaganda peddler -- actually fact-checked a satirical story about CNN using an industrial-sized washer to "spin news."
No joke.
Well, the original story was a joke. It came from the Babylon Bee, a Christian-based satire site. Imagine The Onion, but with less profanity and more Jesus.
The Babylon Bee's clearly satirical story alleged that "In order to aid the news station in preparing stories for consumption, popular news media organization CNN purchased an industrial-sized washing machine to help its journalists and news anchors spin the news before publication."
"The custom-made device allows CNN reporters to load just the facts of a given issue, turn a dial to 'spin cycle,' and within five minutes, receive a nearly unrecognizable version of the story that’s been spun to fit with the news station’s agenda," the story mocked.
The left-leaning Snopes apparently thinks conservatives are so dumb that they'd believe CNN actually purchased a washing machine to spin fake news. To save us from ourselves, Snopes decided this was a "story" worth fact-checking -- for real.
"Although it should have been obvious that the Babylon Bee piece was just a spoof of the ongoing political brouhaha over alleged news media 'bias' and 'fake news,' some readers missed that aspect of the article and interpreted it literally. But the site’s footer gives away the Babylon Bee’s nature by describing it as “Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire,” and the site has been responsible for a number of other (usually religious-themed) spoofs that have been mistaken for real news articles," Snopes "reported."
Oh, but it gets worse. One Twitter user said that thanks to Snopes "fact-checking" the story, Facebook actually began flagging the Babylon Bee's article as potential "fake news."
Really, Facebook?? pic.twitter.com/HEtBc7C0Gz
— Adam Ford (@Adam4d) March 2, 2018
Thankfully, the vast majority of Twitter users aren't as dumb as Snopes seems to think.
hey @snopes THANKS SO MUCH for doing "additional reporting" on the @TheBabylonBee washing machine @CNN Spin story @facebook you might want to reconsider this. #POSTANYWAY
— Hierodule⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@hierodula) March 2, 2018
Where would we be without Snopes protecting us https://t.co/AUvphTdg4S
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) March 2, 2018
Did @CNN buy an industrial sized washing machine to spin its news? Thank God we have the crack investigators at @snopes to get to the bottom of this. https://t.co/heaoQrv6CV
— Napp Nazworth (@NappNazworth) March 2, 2018
Wow, I can't believe CNN bought a literal washing machine to spin the news.
— BringYourOwnClarkhat (@byoanarchy) March 2, 2018
(I'm just trying to get my name in Snopes)
So news isn’t literally spun? Or is CNN still spinning it manually? Please clarify @snopes this is very confusing https://t.co/YE0drEbXvL
— J. Cogen (@j_cogen) March 2, 2018
No. Snopes literally has a page "debunking" a joke from a right-leaning satire site.
— Schart (@IllIlIIlIO) March 2, 2018
Before you comment further, do you expect there are any Samantha Bee clips flagged like this?https://t.co/K1BFVoRwXS
And, once again, everything is stupid.