Whenever an argument arises between people online, more specifically those related to politics, everyone touts their sources. Some will go with the NY times, Washington Post, NY Post, Washington Examiner, and whatever source one can dredge up to support their side. Typically, a fight will ensue over whether one source is more or less credible than the other. Of course, the argument is typically never won. Liberals will try to supplement their sources by adding in the glowing judgment of the fact checking website Snopes. Somehow, Snopes has become Judge, Jury, and Executioner on all things web related. Originally, they started out as a site that debunked urban legends. But just like everything that gains trust with pop culture, the Progressive Left finds a way to co-opt it and exploit it for their gains.
These days, Snopes tend to focus on political fact checking and it’s usually 99% in favor of the Liberal argument. But when you look into the people behind Snopes, like writer Kim Lacpria, you learn that political bias is prevalent throughout that site. The Daily Caller broke the stranglehold of credibility that they’ve somehow been crowned with by researching the background of those behind the fact checking site.
Snopes’ main political fact-checker is a writer named Kim Lacapria. Before writing for Snopes, Lacapria wrote for Inquisitr, a blog that — oddly enough — is known for publishing fake quotes and even downright hoaxes as much as anything else.
While at Inquisitr, the future “fact-checker” consistently displayed clear partisanship (RELATED: Snopes Caught Lying About Lack Of American Flags At Democratic Convention)
She described herself as “openly left-leaning” and a liberal. She trashed the Tea Party as “teahadists.” She called Bill Clinton “one of our greatest” presidents. She claimed that conservatives only criticized Lena Dunham’s comparison of voting to sex because they “fear female agency.”
She once wrote: “Like many GOP ideas about the poor, the panic about using food stamps for alcohol, pornography or guns seems to have been cut from whole cloth–or more likely, the ideas many have about the fantasy of poverty.” (A simple fact-check would show that food stamp fraud does occur and costs taxpayers tens of millions.)
Lacapria even accused the Bush administration of being “at least guilty of criminal negligience” in the September 11 attacks. (The future “fact-checker” offered no evidence to support her accusation.)
So, the credibility that the left has bestowed upon Snopes is more or less propaganda reinforcement. And this is what makes this story even better. The Babylon Bee, a parody website and Twitter account, is a site that is similar to The Onion which is focused on lampooning people of faith. They aren’t a site that is maliciously attacking religion or those who proclaim faith, they basically just make light of it and make hilarious stories in a jovial fashion.
Recently, The Babylon Bee decided to make light of the recent outrage towards Joel Osteen. Osteen was in the news recently because of his perceived slow response to helping his community be taking in victims of Hurricane Harvey in Houston. Twitter viciously attacked him when they assumed that he and his church, which is the size of a Coliseum, would remain closed without taking in hurricane victims. So, to mock this situation, The Babylon Bee posted this on their twitter account.
The story goes on the state:
Osteen had his on-call yacht captain steer the large vessel through the flooded streets of the city, pulling up to survivors stranded on their roofs and on the roof of their cars as the prosperity gospel preacher smiled, waved, and threw out signed editions of the bestselling positive thinking book.
“Believe and declare you are coming into a shift!” Osteen yelled through a bullhorn, according to reports. “God wants His best for you! Enlarge your vision, develop a healthy self image, and choose to be happy!”
“When you think positive, excellent thoughts, you will be propelled toward greatness!” he called out to one family floating on a raft on a freeway-turned-river, whose earthly possessions had been entirely destroyed the previous day.
Osteen also paused for brief photo ops with several families, the smiling pastor briefly allowing them to board his yacht as his professional photography team got shots of the pastor together with the sobbing, distraught flood victims, though the pastor was careful to not stand too close to the mud-caked refugees. Sources confirmed that the pastor then had his assistants help the families back into their makeshift lifeboats or tree logs on which they were floating through the city.
Doesn’t take too much of a sleuth to show that this isn’t a true story. But leave it to Snopes (and the insanity that has topped 2016, known as 2017) to break the facts on down.
Lets take a moment and see what wondrous insight Snopes can provide to get to the bottom of this bit of satirical musings.
On 29 August 2017, readers sent in e-mails asking whether it was true Joel Osteen sailed through a flooded Houston distributing copies of his book Your Best Life Now:
Did this really happen, cause if so thats horrible…
There is a pic on FB that shows Osteens boat around Houston passing his prosperity book out. Any truth to this?
Is it true that Joel Osteen sailed his yacht through the streets passing out his book?
Osteen’s name had already worked through social media during and after Hurricane Harvey because of stories that Lakewood Church was not made available to people affected by the historic storm. The “yacht” claim originated with the Babylon Bee.
Thanks, Snopes, for your dedication in fact checking the fake news. We will be sure to consult your publication and website for further debunking of Conservatism and parody news stories.
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