These tweets are a couple of days past their freshness date but in light of The Babylon Bee retaining a law firm to go after Snopes for suggesting it’s not a satire site but deliberate fake news, we thought it important to get the input of CNN’s media guy, Brian Stelter.

In a response to a follower, Stelter tweeted in no uncertain terms that The Bee was “a fake news site” that calls itself “satire” (which Stelter himself put in scare quotes). Years before he’d praised The Onion, though, as “perhaps the best parody of cable news anywhere.”

@brianstelter has informed me the Bee is fake news unlike the Onion which is parody. https://t.co/yntulJl9Uk pic.twitter.com/64XeygV8X4 — Matthew Dempster (@dempstermd) July 25, 2019

Again, keep in mind that Snopes, in its post as fake news watchdog for the big social media companies, has “fact-checked” Babylon Bee parodies such as, “Ocasio-Cortez Appears On ‘The Price Is Right,’ Guesses Everything Is Free.”

Wow, that's real? — Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) July 25, 2019

In fairness, the Bee Tweet is from the last 24 hours and the Onion one is several years old though there isn’t any calling the Onion fake news. — Matthew Dempster (@dempstermd) July 25, 2019

Here’s Stelter to clear up the seeming disparity in his tweets:

No, the Bee tweet is from 5 months ago and the Onion tweet is from almost 10 years ago. Someone tweeted at me wanting to know if a story on the Bee was true. It was false. Do you think Onion stories confuse people equally frequently? — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 25, 2019

If that’s the standard, then yes. Do you know how many times we read in the comments (to CNN tweets especially), “I thought this was The Onion at first.”

So yes, according to Stelter, The Onion is brilliant satire but The Babylon Bee is a “fake news site” that likes to call itself satire because someone with no sense of humor tweeted at him once wanting to know if a Bee parody was real. Guess he wants to hear from The Bee’s attorneys as well.

Stand corrected on the date of the Bee Tweet but other than that, it’s odd you consider one parody and the other fake news considering it’s obvious both are satire though ideology has nothing to do with it, of course. — Matthew Dempster (@dempstermd) July 25, 2019

Probably just a coincidence that the Onion is now owned by Univision Stelter would be having conniptions if, say, Fox News owned a satire site like the Bee The Onion is parody because of ideology and the fact it is owned by the network fronted by Jorge Ramos — skepticalifornia (@skepticaliblog) July 25, 2019

Do you really think the Babylon Bee intends their stories to be taken seriously? And no, I doubt as many people confuse as many people because The Onion is much better known. Is the Bee penalized because they're newer at it? — Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) July 25, 2019

Scroll down the tweets at @TheBabylonBee… These stories are meant to be "fake news"?

I screenshotted a few… pic.twitter.com/Cgkd1DTngV — Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) July 25, 2019

I am still hoping you will circle back on this. I'd like to know why you consider the Bee "fake news" as opposed to satire. Satire by definition includes elements of truth with the intention of making a point, not misleading. How does the Bee cross a line that The Onion doesn't? — Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) July 25, 2019

So what you’re really communicating without saying it is @TheBabylonBee is just better at satire than @TheOnion…so much better, in fact, that you – a newsman – can’t tell them from a news organization. And that you interface with a lot of unusually gullible people. Yikes. — Princess of Whales (@corrcomm) July 25, 2019

I wasn't with you until I saw this one. This one could plausibly be seen as true. https://t.co/ZRYzgzZhhk — George Smith (@P1B_WMichigan) July 25, 2019

The Tweet of God. Is that real or no? — Smittie™ GED (Hons), BS (D-) (@smittie61984) July 25, 2019

Yes, it’s the right-leaning satire site that clearly labels itself as satire that’s nefarious. The left-leaning satire site that doesn’t contain the word “satire” anywhere is just good harmless fun. pic.twitter.com/uIYtg5hVVc — Ether Worshipper (@satoshiksutra) July 25, 2019

Yes, clearly no one has ever been confused by the Onion ? https://t.co/yh7AfRM2L9 — Billy Looch (@thrillthewill) July 25, 2019

Yes they do confuse humorless leftists. On the other hand people who get satire can see @ReliableSources is not to be taken seriously. — Deploraboer ???? (@hooikoors) July 25, 2019

There's always one dude who doesn't get the joke. — Craig Burley’s Beard (@FreeBearly) July 30, 2019

What are you basing this on? Gut feeling? — Teflon Gone (@TeflonGone) July 25, 2019

That makes it better satire, not fake news. One might get the impression that you're sour on the Bee's excellence because of it's ideology. — Howard Wall ? (@HJWallEcon) July 25, 2019

Journalist Janitor to the rescue — Glenn Amurgis (@gamurgis) July 25, 2019

1) If anyone actually goes to the site they don’t hide that they are “Christian satire” 2) And maybe that’s the problem, our culture (and media) know so little about Christians that they can’t see that the material is OBVIOUSLY satire. So whose fault is the confusion? — Robert Howard (@rlh) July 26, 2019

My God, Tater, you’re a parody of a leftist propagandist at this point. — Matt Bennett (@mattben10) July 25, 2019

Brian, you only call the Bee “fake news” because they satirize liberals and you can’t abide that. Who in the world do you think you’re fooling behaving this way? — BrassStones (@BrassStones) July 30, 2019

“This idiot DM’d me wanting to know if this was true, obviously we have an epidemic and need to label a satire site as misleading” yeah that’s the conclusion to draw here — Eli (@UnrealElijah) July 30, 2019

You admit your followers are easily duped? https://t.co/zDypXj4Zo3 — Anthony Bialy (@AnthonyBialy) July 30, 2019

Remind me what you do for a living? — Tommy Buck (@tommybuck) July 30, 2019

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