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The latest gaffe from Snopes over the weekend has put a spotlight on the fact-checking site’s left-leaning slant.
"Snopes is the kid that thinks they're the smartest student in the room and the apple of the teacher's eye, but in reality, they're the one everyone makes fun of for being a smart aleck," NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck told Fox News Digital.
Snopes, which is largely taken as gospel by the media elite, has been referred to by CNN as "the internet’s oldest and best-known fact checker," and once partnered with Facebook on a truth-finding venture. Snopes' own website boasts that it has been cited in publications such as The New York Times and Washington Post, while staffers have appeared on ABC, CNN and NPR.
SOCIAL MEDIA STUNNED AFTER SNOPES FACT-CHECK REVERSAL ON PRESIDENT BIDEN'S BACKWARDS HARDHAT
The left-leaning political fact-checker Snopes reversed one of its rulings this weekend to admit that President Biden did, in fact, wear a construction hard hat backwards. (X: @amyklobuchar)
Snopes reversed one of its rulings over the weekend to admit that President Biden did, in fact, wear a construction hard hat backwards. Biden was pictured during a visit to union workers in Wisconsin and the photo showed Biden noticeably wearing the hard hat backwards, with the strap and tightening knob clearly visible.
Snopes' published an initial fact check, admitting the photo was authentic but insisting the president was correctly wearing the protective headwear.
"It does look, at first glance, like Biden was wearing that hard hat backwards. But after comparing it to other photos and videos of the same event, we were forced to reach the opposite conclusion: The hat on Biden's head was facing forward, bill to the front, not backward," Snopes initially claimed.
Social media users blasted Snopes, as hard hats universally have the tightening strap on the back. The liberal fact check site then issued an about-face.
"The prevailing counter-argument is that if the suspension of the hat has been purposely configured by its owner such that the bill and tightening knob are worn to the back (as was the case of the hat Biden wore), to wear that hat with the bill facing forward is, practically speaking, to wear it backwards. Therefore, it's argued, it's actually true that, in the photo op discussed below, Biden was wearing it backwards. The strap and tightening knob, which should have been behind Biden's head, were on his forehead," Snopes editors wrote in an updated version of the fact check.
Snopes once partnered with Facebook on a truth-finding venture.
Snopes was blasted for its latest blunder, with many pointing out that the site has a history of running cover for Democrats.
"That Snopes article is a really good example of the overwhelming desire of ‘fact checkers’ to ride to the rescue of Democrats. That article simply doesn’t get written if a Republican wears a hat backwards," RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway wrote of Snopes' initial instinct to defend Biden.
Snopes, which was founded in 1994 to tackle urban legends, has evolved into a fact-checking website that many feel has a blatant liberal agenda. It has been forced to issue embarrassing corrections and editor’s notes, including incidents in which it fact-checked the conservative satirical website The Babylon Bee and eventually told readers it was "in the process of pioneering industry standards for how the fact-checking industry should best address humor and satire."
Houck, a longtime critic of Snopes, believes the hard hat debacle proves that it’s out of touch.
"The fact that they needed to be dragged through mud to be educated on how to properly wear a hard hat shows they have no comprehension of what it's like to be an American worker. Add in the fact that they've targeted the Babylon Bee for being the crime of conservative satire -- while almost always giving a pass to leftists at The Onion -- and they're either the most sheltered adults on planet Earth or some of the dumbest," Houck said.
Last year, Snopes had to alter its rating about a claim suggesting that X owner Elon Musk’s Starlink company was partially responsible for the disappearance of the OceanGate submersible. While Musk isn’t a lawmaker, his rhetoric has often made him a target of the left – and Snopes was no exception.
Snopes claimed the allegation of Musk’s company bearing some responsibility was "true," then updated the fact check to say it was "unproven," before finally adding the necessary context and deeming the allegation "false."
Musk declared at the time, "Snopes is a con."
LEFT-WING FACT-CHECKER EMBARRASSED AFTER TRYING TO TIE ELON MUSK TO TITANIC SUB SITUATION
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have been on different sides of Snopes fact checks. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Snopes was scolded by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office in 2022 for claiming a realistic-looking list of banned books circulating on social media "originated as satire" rather than simply being "false" despite including titles such as "The Lord of the Rings."
"There’s clearly a double standard. Lies about the governor and conservative policies get covered up with ‘Originated as Satire’-style dismissals and, largely, face no penalty. Meanwhile, conservative voices are frequently censored – even when those conservative voices are merely exposing the radical ideas of the left," DeSantis’ office told Fox News Digital at the time.
In 2021, Snopes raised eyebrows for appearing to contradict itself regarding a controversy surrounding the Capitol Hill riot story from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The New York Democrat offered an emotional account of what she said she experienced Jan. 6, repeatedly telling her Instagram followers that she thought she was going to die after hearing banging outside her office door.
Critics pointed out that Ocasio-Cortez wasn't inside the main Capitol building when the rioters stormed. Many accused the leader of the "Squad" of either exaggerating or fabricating her claim.
Snopes took on the claim, "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez exaggerated the danger she was in during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, in that she 'wasn't even in the Capitol building' when the rioting occurred," and rated it "mostly false."
But underneath its "what's true" section, the liberal site acknowledged, "Ocasio-Cortez wasn't in the main Capitol building where the House and Senate Chambers are located."
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Also in 2021, Snopes co-founder David Mikkelson was found to have plagiarized a staggering 54 articles. That same year, the New York Post editorial board blasted the fact-checking site.
"Snopes.com describes itself as the ‘definitive fact-checking site,’ yet turns out to be a big source of misinformation," the editorial board wrote. "It’s just the latest example of ‘fact-checking’ serving as a cover for partisan, left-wing opinion."
Snopes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom, Lindsay Kornick, Gabriel Hays and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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