A4 Sunday, August 25, 2019 The Leader OPINION TOM O'MARA | 58TH DISTRICT BILL THOMPSON | GUEST VIEWPOINT Taxes? Fees? More Snopes needs to lighten up n 2009 PolitiFact sifting through political and Snopes’s judgment calls. Iarguably changed media facts and fallacies.” In recent days Snopes has journalism forever. It’s unclear when the Bee defended itself by highlight- taxes and fees? The fact-checking opera- appeared on Snopes’s radar, ing findings by Ohio State tion of the now-Tampa Bay but one of its earliest reviews researchers who studied the Times won the Pulitzer Prize of Bee content came in July effectiveness of online satire. license plate replacement majorities welcomed back for national reporting with 2016. The Bee “reported” The report noted in part the program that will require, tax-and-spend govern- its 2008 election coverage. abortion doctor Kermit Bee’s offerings “were among starting next April, mil- ment that’s bad news for PolitiFact wasn’t the first of Gosnell, imprisoned for a the most shared factually lions of motorists to begin taxpayers, job creators, its kind, yet its methodology murder conviction related inaccurate content” it found. ponying up $25 for new and workers. The 2019- and presentation, espe- to his practice, was a surpise Factually inaccurate? license plates. Want to 20 budget relies on more cially its renowned Truth- speaker at the Democratic That paper also high- Tom O’mara keep your current plate than $1 billion in new taxes O-Meter, set it apart and National Convention. lighted a long post on Aug. number? That’ll cost and fees to support sig- quickly elevated it to the top Since then, Snopes has 15 by Snopes explaining you an additional $20. nificant new short- and of the genre. The Pulitzer also evaluated Bee articles like the why it “fact-checks” satire. hat better time As Rochester politi- long-term state spending, validated fact-checking as a “Elevation Church” install- Founder David Mikkelson Wthan the dog cal commentator Bob including a new sales tax legit form of news reporting. ing “a water slide to speed maintains audience reaction days of August Lonsberry recently on internet purchases. A decade later — although up baptisms”; the Southern and not “political lean- for New York govern- wrote, “Would you pre- Keep in mind that the exceptions emerge from Baptist Convention buying ings” drives what Snopes ment to roll out an online fer to be stabbed by a budget also set in motion time to time — many con- Chick-fil-A; police assuag- researches. Mikkelson, very vote for New Yorkers to red knife, a blue knife, new state spending com- servatives believe the self- ing Millennial protesters by diplomatically, also sug- choose the state’s next or a green knife?” mitments that will become proclaimed truth squads presenting them “participa- gests Snopes does so because license plate design. It’s expected to generate increasingly expensive, exist only to enforce liberal tion trophies”; California people are too stupid or too Yes, you read that at least another $75 mil- including a system of dogma found in the content requiring Christians to regis- lazy to figure out the joke. right. As a New Yorker, lion or so for the state’s public campaign financ- of heavy hitters in the main- ter Bibles as assault weapons. “Helping people distinguish you have been granted an coffers. According to the ing, electoral reforms stream media. Reinforcing Just this year, Snopes has the true from the not-true opportunity to “Vote for governor’s announce- like early voting, a Green that view is online sniping tackled Bee pieces about and build up their media Your Favorite New York ment, “Beginning April New Deal, college tuition between Snopes.com and CNN hiring hoax perpetra- literacy skills benefits every- State License Plate.” 2020, through the plate assistance for illegal the Babylon Bee, a con- tor Jussie Smollett, Rep. one,” he wrote. “That’s what Governor Andrew replacement program, as immigrants, and others. servative, Christian satire Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez we do here at Snopes.com.” Cuomo proclaimed, customers renew their Combine new state website that has emerged appearing on “The Price Yet many conservatives “License plates are a sym- vehicle registrations over spending commit- as the right’s counter to The is Right” and guessing would argue fact-checkers bol of who we are as a state the next two years, those ments and fiscal storm Onion, long the gold stan- “free” for every bid, and themselves are fueling that and New Yorkers should with license plates that clouds on the horizon, dard for internet satire. Sen. Sanders pledging problem with misleading have a voice and a vote in are 10-years-old or older and you get the need Some recent head- to round up ISIS fight- or politicized grades about its final design… I encour- will be issued new plates. for more state revenue. lines offer a sense of the ers so they could vote. what constitutes a “fact.” age all residents to take The current $25 license You get a license plate world according to the Snopes has dutifully The Bee has parried these part in choosing this piece plate replacement fee will replacement program, Bee: “Proud Parents of identified such articles as thrusts from Snopes over the of our state’s history.” be added to the cost of the for example. Brilliant. 28-year-old Millennial Post satire. But the feud intensi- past few weeks with head- State Motor Vehicles vehicle owner’s registra- What’s next? I have Annual Back-to-Basement fied last month after Snopes lines such as “Obnoxious Commissioner Mark tion renewal. Customers no doubt that New York Picture”; “Bernie Sanders reviewed a Bee article about Snopes Writer Keeps Schroeder reasoned, may also keep their current State’s current team of Arrives In Hong Kong To Georgia Democratic law- Fact-Checking People’s “The time has come for license plate number for New York City, extreme- Lecture Protesters On How maker Erica Thomas, who Jokes at Parties”; “Snopes New York to have a new an additional $20 fee.” liberal leaders will be Good They Have It Under reported that a man of Cuban Rolls Out New Opinion license plate, which is why In other words, the just- tempted, as always, to Communism”; “Shooter descent told her to “go back” Check Feature”; “Snopes we worked hard to cre- launched online voting turn where they’ve always Walks Free as Police Tackle, where she came from dur- Offers Pre-Approval of All ate design options that “opportunity” is, plain turned to deal with fis- Arrest AR-15”; “As School ing a dispute in a grocery Statements Made During not only capture the heart and simple, Albanyspeak cal trouble: higher state Starts Again, Nation’s store and later changed her Tonight’s Democratic of the Empire State, but for, “We’re giving you taxes and fees. New Parents Chant, ‘Send Them story. Snopes ruled that Debates”; “Under Mounting also that our custom- a chance to tell us what York’s Democrat leaders Back!’”; “Woke Polar Bear the Bee’s version so closely Pressure From Snopes, ers will be proud to put tax hike looks best.” always prove that when Apologizes for Being White.” mirrored reality that read- Babylon Bee Writers Forced on their vehicles. I hope On it goes in New York. the going gets tough, they Yet of late the Bee is draw- ers were confused and To Admit They Are Not everyone across the state Back in April, my go looking for a new tax. ing attention for its skirmish accepted it as serious news. Real Journalists”; and will take a few minutes reaction to the new Mandating new with Snopes, which launched That matters because the “Concerning Survey Finds to view the options and state budget was that license plates highlights a quarter-century ago, long liberal news site BuzzFeed Too Many People Believe vote for their top pick.” Governor Cuomo and just the beginning, I’m before the internet was really subsequently reported that Snopes Is A Legitimate Of course, what’s really the Legislature’s new afraid, of the tax-and- a thing, and certainly long the Bee’s editors and their Fact-Checking Website.” going on is that the state Democratic, all-down- fee madness to come. before “fact-checking” was defenders in conservative Making fun of politics used is launching a 10-year state, extreme-liberal But don’t forget to vote. cool, and receiving Pulitzers. media felt Snopes’s efforts to be a storied American For years conservatives, were actually attempts pastime, and a pressure like liberals, found Snopes to persuade social media valve. Now, humorless LETTERS POLICY useful in dispelling too- moguls to de-platform trolls drain the life out of good-to-be-true rumors the Bee and lump it in with everything. Sad. Lighten Letters should be typed or neatly printed. They must be signed and include an address and and goofy claims in chain fringe, right-wing hate up, Snopes. And long may phone number. Letters may be edited for space considerations. The publication of any letter is emails. Writing at National groups. BuzzFeed noted the Babylon Bee sting. at the discretion of the editor. All letters become the property of The Leader and cannot be Review Online in 2004, for Facebook, which once used Bill Thompson (bill. returned to sender. instance, California journal- Snopes as a fact-checking thompson@theledger. ist Catherine Seipp called service, had threatened com) is the editorial page Mail: Letters To The Editor, The Leader, Po Box 1017, Corning, NY 14830 Snopes “indispensable,” and last year to curtail the Bee’s editor of The Ledger in Fax: 607-936-9939 Email: [email protected] “an invaluable resource for distribution because of Lakeland, Florida.