Yesterday, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, who covers “disinformation” for the network, published a thread about the Christian satire site Babylon Bee. According to O’Sullivan, many readers can’t figure out that the site is satire because it hides this fact from readers. In fact, he suggests the Bee might be hiding behind the satire label as a way to avoid being removed from Facebook.

To put this in perspective, this is the same number of engagements the top NY Times and CNN stories on Facebook had over the past week. A lot of people sharing this "satirical" story on Facebook don't know it is satire. https://t.co/HnDjuqw2si — Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) January 5, 2020

The next tweet is the one in which he suggests “satire” is just a clever way to dodge accountability:

The data I pulled on Facebook engagements is from @BuzzSumo btw — Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) January 5, 2020

From last August: Satire or Deceit? Christian Humor Site Feuds With Snopes https://t.co/1eeGP27C07 — Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) January 6, 2020

Several people pointed out to O’Sullivan that it’s not at all difficult to discover the Babylon Bee is satire. It’s right there in he first paragraph of their About Us page and on their Twitter feed. And then there are the stories that obviously aren’t real, like this one:

Anti-Wall Extremist The Kool-Aid Man Leads Campaign Against Trump https://t.co/qEwdKsgPhc — The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 6, 2020

And this:

San Francisco Dogs Begin Bagging People Poop https://t.co/kh6BvmRrAC — The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 4, 2020

Is this satire or an attempt to dodge Facebook algorithms? Anyone besides Donie O’Sullivan can answer that one, I suspect. Adam Ford who co-founded the Bee was curious if O’Sullivan had ever issued similar complaints about satire site The Onion. Here’s what he found:

There are websites dedicated to chronicling reactions from people who think Onion stories are real. Foreign leaders have famously been fooled by Onion articles. And this guy's bio says he "covers disinformation" for CNN. Surely he has taken the Onion to task as well, yes? 2/3 — Adam Ford (@Adam4d) January 6, 2020

In fact, O’Sullivan regularly shares article from the Onion:

https://twitter.com/Adam4d/status/1214231013695664129

In response to the attacks by O’Sullivan, the Bee tweeted out an old bit of satire from 2017:

CNN To Launch Real News Spinoff Sitehttps://t.co/LExCQdOMXg — The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 6, 2020

CNN gets poked a lot by the Babylon Bee. Just a few days ago it published another mock article about the network: “CNN: ‘Trump Voter Shoots Mentally Ill Man In Church'”

CNN: 'Trump Voter Shoots Mentally Ill Man In Church' https://t.co/s4XFcQbuXO — The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 3, 2020

It seems possible that CNN’s dislike for the Babylon Bee might have something to do with stories like these that don’t put the network in a flattering light. At a minimum, that explanation is more believable than the conspiracy theory Donie O’Sullivan is promoting.