Fact Check: Is The Babylon Bee a ‘Fake News’ Site?

A headline for an article from the Miami Herald claims that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “used [a] fake news site to raise cash.” A tweet promoting the article uses the same language.

The article details how DeSantis’ campaign committee and a political action committee associated with his campaign have paid The Babylon Bee for access to its list of subscribers. The Babylon Bee is a conservative satire website.  The article itself describes The Babylon Bee correctly, reporting that the campaign and PAC “have sought help from a satire website with the tagline ‘Fake news you can trust.’”

After a New York Times article referred to the Bee as a “right-wing misinformation site,” the Bee threatened legal action, leading to the Times correcting its article and changing references to the Babylon Bee to make clear that it is satire. Other outlets, such as Snopes, have similarly gone from referring to Bee articles as “false” to “satire.”