New York Times admits it smeared a popular satire site
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon says, 'As satirists, the last thing we want to do is threaten lawsuits' on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon appeared on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" to discuss why the New York Times' reversed its claim that the satirical site peddles "misinformation."
On Monday, the Times issued a correction after initially claiming the Bee "trafficked in misinformation," and the liberal paper now admits the site simply publishes satire. Fox News first reported earlier this year that Dillon was considering legal action after the Times labeled the popular site of peddling fake news "under the guise of satire" and referred to it as a "misinformation" site.
"We can't take this stuff lying down," Dillon began Monday night. "We actually, as satirists, want to joke about this stuff. We just want to poke fun at The New York Times. The problem is, like it or not, The New York Times is considered a reliable source. So when the social networks are looking to decide who's satire, who's misinformation, who's fake news, they look to The New York Times, they look to Snopes, they look to CNN."
NEW YORK TIMES ADMITS BABYLON BEE IS SATIRE, NOT ‘MISINFORMATION,’ IN CORRECTION
"And so when they're making these mischaracterizations about us, we have to take it seriously and even if we don't want to—we want to keep things light, we've got to send demand letters, we've got to threaten to sue because otherwise, we're going to get mischaracterized and we're going to get the boot from social media," Dillion explained.
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon was considering legal action after the New York Times labeled the popular satirical website of peddling fake news "under the guise of satire" and referred to it as a "misinformation" site.
Dillon said this was an issue of "self-preservation," telling Fox News' Tucker Carlson that the Babylon Bee depends on social media networks for traffic and that "if we lose the social networks, we lose our business."
While the Times eventually retracted its claim about the Bee, Dillion insisted the error was "deliberate" because the "legacy media" is taking advantage of social media's concern of the spread of misinformation.
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"We're making fun of the things that need to be made fun of. We're ridiculing bad ideas," Dillon said. "The New York Times has incredible disdain for us, I would guess, by the way they're treating us, in the way they are handling this because they know better."
"On the one hand, it's extremely ironic that they're using misinformation to smear us as being a source of it… It's comically ironic, but beyond that, it's malicious because they know better."
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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