The report was right there, in black and white: “Ocasio-Cortez Appears On ‘The Price Is Right,’ Guesses Everything Is Free.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was pumped to attend a taping of The Price Is Right in Hollywood this week. The special guest introduced herself as a U.S. representative and rising star of the Democratic Party. Things got interesting when the game began and every time it was her turn to estimate the price of an item her answer was “free.” Items included a set of Italian leather handbags, an all expenses paid trip to the Bahamas, and a brand new 2019 BMW 330i, at all of which Ocasio-Cortez shouted, “FREE!” When host Drew Carey asked if Ocasio-Cortez understood the game’s rules, she told Carey not to cat-call her and then responded, “Don’t hate me cause you ain’t me.”

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Pretty funny. And the Democratic socialist from New York might well do that if she ever appears on the show (she does, after all, call for free health care, free college tuition, and free cash for everyone, along with pushing an climate change program estimated to cost $93 trillion over 10 years).

But the story was just a joke, posted by the satirical website Babylon Bee.

For some reason, Snopes — which calls itself the “definitive fact-checking resource” and was once employed by Facebook to rule on what is true and what is not — decided to “fact check” the fake article.

“FALSE,” said the website.

“In mid-April 2019, an image supposedly showing U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez guessing that the cost of an item was ‘free’ during an appearance on the daytime television game show ‘The Price is Right’ started circulating on social media,” Snopes wrote, posting the above picture. “This is not a genuine photograph of Ocasio-Cortez on the show. This image was created for a satirical article that was originally published by The Babylon Bee.”

“This viral image combined a photograph of the congresswoman during her appearance on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ in June 2018 with a still from an October episode of ‘The Price is Right.’ “

After much mocking of Snopes, the “fact” checker posted an explanation.

“What started as a story about @AOC on a satirical website also spread on social media as a standalone altered image. Without context, it is inevitable in today’s misinformation age that some people will see, believe, and keep scrolling,” Snopes wrote on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/snopes/status/1118600139470450688

It’s not the first time Snopes fact-checked a Bee piece. In February, Snopes ruled as “FALSE” a Bee story headlined, “Jussie Smollett Offered Job At CNN After Fabricating News Story Out Of Thin Air.”

And these people are the ones checking the veracity of news?