Snopes co-founder revealed as serial plagiarist, planned to fill site with "traffic-generating junk"

boing
1

Originally published at: Snopes co-founder revealed as serial plagiarist, planned to fill site with "traffic-generating junk" | Boing Boing

…

8 Likes
2

And that should just about be enough to end Snopes, which already has “Save our Snopes” all over it. This is a big day for the asshole liars of the world.

19 Likes
3

Can confirm that this has been confirmed by Snopes: Apology from Members of Snopes Senior Management | Snopes.com

36 Likes
4

I hear them cheering from their basement lairs.

15 Likes
5

Sigh… the right-wing is very happy today (despite the fact that Snopes was pretty even handed in beating back bloviating bullshit and it was never a “liberal” site out to get them). This is why we can’t have nice things.

35 Likes
6

Even with all the plagiarism, the truth ratio is still miles ahead of anything on the right. And a lot on the left, too. I really hope this doesn’t torpedo the whole thing, but it doesn’t look good.

32 Likes
7

I read that as “basement liars” …

why not both?

6 Likes
8

“Snopes VP of Editorial and Managing Editor”

Fancy shamncy position. I avoid dealing with hustlers who are sole-proprietors and give themselves the most exalted titles to make it seems like there’s some vast business empire around them. I don’t impress easily.

3 Likes
9

Came here for this.

9 Likes
10

I kinda figured they were up to something like this… the “news” articles were rather prolific.

1 Like
11

We always knew they were up to something

42 Likes
12

Oh BS. I learned this in middle school.

18 Likes
13

In reality he probably went to fiver and had some kid write a scraper from the AP , and used that for SEO reasons.

3 Likes
14

Furrfu

1 Like
15

I always much preferred Truth or Fiction. Facts presented without condescension, nor a side of snide, unlike snopes.

5 Likes
16

plagiarism is bad. But it isn’t the same thing as publishing lies. I mean, it’s a dishonest and maybe illegal thing to do but sounds like the content was still real true news, right? And this says nothing about their actual fact checking pages, right?

9 Likes
17

Plagiarism is a form of lying. He was presenting copied content as original. If he lies about that, it casts doubt on everything else Snopes has done. Even if all of their fact checking is still 100% legitimate, their credibility is shot. “Hey, I checked this on Snopes, and it’s not true.” “Didn’t Snopes get caught plagiarizing? You can’t trust them.” And how do you respond to that? “Well they don’t lie about everything?” Neither does Donald Trump but I’m still not going to believe a single word that comes out of his mouth. When your product is truth, getting caught lying about anything is completely destructive to your brand.

11 Likes
18

I think what is perhaps more pertinent, is that the co-founder is currently lying about the plagiarism. That definitely casts him as an untrustworthy source. He really needs to immediately resign from having anything to do with management of the site.

14 Likes
19

Dear lord. is anything worth saving? I remember Mikkelson from when he appeared on alt.folklore.urban back in the dark ages of the Internet (you know, before the riff raff were allowed on).

7 Likes
20

For the reason danimagoo went into, nope. Once your credibility is shot, it’s really over. Especially if your business is telling people who are telling the truth and who are liars.

5 Likes