The best Babylon Bee and The Onion are humor sites that engage in satire; but their object is less the political target.  It is the readers and the pundits who will accept foolish stories if it fits their narrative. Their genius is selecting headlines that are believable to the true believers.

It may be a comment on how outrageous our reality is that it is this easy to fool people, but it is a larger commentary on how easily we become a slave to our narrative.

Snopes Introduces New ‘Factually Inaccurate But Morally Right’ Fact Check Result

The genius of the Babylon Bee and the Onion is that they engage in headlines that are believable, especially to those where the content supports the narrative of the reader.  I posted the one above on my Rebel Yid Facebook fan page and a few comments clearly did not understand that it was a joke.

There are lessons here- that the media would be wise to learn, especially in light of the BuzzFeed fiasco of Michael Cohen and the more recent fiasco of the Covington High School-

  1. Rage makes you stupid
  2. You will believe the most outrageous things if it fits your narrative. If your first response to an outrageous story is to smile or cheer or become enraged  then a professional should stop and triple check every detail and then wait 48 hours to see what clarifications emerge.

Irresponsible reporting does more to harm the reputation of the press than anything Trump has done.

The other Bee headline I love is this:

Confirmed: Jesus To Validate All Your Political Opinions At Second Coming

I find these sites quite entertaining,  bringing a useful new dimension to political satire.

to my readers – don’t feel foolish if you failed to recognize the headline as a satire-  our most respected news organizations frequently fall victim to their narrative.

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