I took a look at the New York Times’s drive-by defamation of the Babylon Bee last week in “Sting like a Babylon Bee.” The Times disparaged the Bee as a a “far-right misinformation site” that “sometimes trafficked in misinformation in the guise of satire.”
The Bee is of course a site devoted exclusively to satire with a conservative bent. The Times’s reference to the Bee as a “far-right misinformation site” virtually defies belief. The Times compounded the error in a ridiculous update.
Say this for the Times. When it comes to misinformation, it speaks with the authority of a perpetrator and hard-core recidivist. Were it not for the example of the Bee itself, we might think it impossible to satirize the Times.
The Bee followed up with a threatening letter to the Times seeking a correction. As Tyler O’Neil relates for PJ Media, the Times has finally corrected its story. Via Twitter, Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon claimed victory.
Big update here. The @nytimes has responded to our demand letter by removing defamatory statements about us from their article. Here's their email to our counsel notifying us of the correction. https://t.co/lv0eYo6NzK pic.twitter.com/OLi5KzMzej
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) June 14, 2021
This is huge. The NY Times was using misinformation to smear us as being a source of it. That's not merely ironic; it's malicious. We pushed back hard and won. Thanks to everyone who voiced and offered their support. We don't have to take this nonsense lying down. Remember that.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) June 14, 2021
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