Here we go again! Snopes.com is slamming an obvious Babylon Bee parody with the "False" label. On Wednesday, they asked "Was ‘Empire’ Actor Jussie Smollett Offered a Job at CNN?" Dan Evon of Snopes felt the urgent need to warn "This was not a genuine news story, although some readers mistook it for such."
"The network, according to the Babylon Bee, was reportedly impressed with Smollett’s ability to fabricate a story out of thin air." The parody began:
While Empire actor Jussie Smollett has been having a tough week so far, there appears to be a silver lining: cable news channel CNN has offered Smollett a job as an investigative reporter and on-air anchor after witnessing his skills at fabricating a story entirely out of thin air.
CNN producers were reportedly impressed throughout the ongoing saga of Smollett’s apparent hoax attack on himself. They realized early on the facts didn’t add up but were fascinated with how well the actor kept the narrative going. An HR rep quickly reached out to Smollett to see if he’d be interested in taking on a position at the news organization after news broke that the entire thing was probably fabricated.
"Smollett has exactly the kind of skills we look for at our fine organization," said CNN correspondent Brian Stelter. "He picked a narrative, made up all the relevant facts and details, and stuck with his story in spite of glaring holes in the plot. It's hard to find people who understand our core values here at CNN, but Smollett seems to be just the guy for us."
Snopes concluded "The Babylon Bee is a satirical website whose disclaimer notes that 'The Babylon Bee is Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire.'"
They might argue that the Bee also ran an article headlined "Nation's Liberals Devastated After Learning Hate Crime Didn't Actually Happen," with the fake quote from a liberal that "I needed this to be true." That's embarrassingly close to what liberals said.
Snopes has offered this silly clickbait before, starting with warning extremely gullible people not to believe the Bee's headline "CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication." They also freaked out when the Babylon Bee wise-cracked that Planned Parenthood supported Bill Cosby, saying only three percent of his work was sexual assault.
This is why the Bee also published the parody "Snopes Rates Babylon Bee World's Most Accurate News Source."
