{"id":323815,"date":"2021-08-14T02:50:02","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T23:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/banned-snopes-co-founder-plagiarized-dozens-of-stories\/"},"modified":"2021-08-14T02:50:02","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T23:50:02","slug":"banned-snopes-co-founder-plagiarized-dozens-of-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/banned-snopes-co-founder-plagiarized-dozens-of-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"#Banned Snopes co-founder plagiarized dozens of stories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Banned Snopes co-founder plagiarized dozens of stories<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n        <\/aside>\n<p>Sometimes the facts are stranger than fiction \u2014 and sometimes the facts are plagiarized.<\/p>\n<p>The co-founder of myth-debunking website <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.snopes.com\/\">Snopes<\/a> has been exposed as a plagiarist, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/deansterlingjones\/snopes-cofounder-plagiarism-mikkelson\">according to a BuzzFeed News investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>David Mikkelson, who launched Snopes in 1995 with a mission to be \u201cthe internet\u2019s definitive fact-checking site,\u201d was suspended by his company, Doreen Marchionni, Snopes\u2019 VP of editorial and its managing editor, confirmed to BuzzFeed, after their reporters uncovered no less than 54 plagiarized articles by Mikkelson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet us be clear: Plagiarism undermines our mission and values, full stop,\u201d Marchionni <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/deansterlingjones\/snopes-cofounder-plagiarism-mikkelson\">said in a statement on Friday<\/a>. \u201cIt has no place in any context within this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response to the investigation, Mikkelson said, \u201cThere is no excuse for my serious lapses in judgement. I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>BuzzFeed wrote that Mikkelson\u2019s Snopes posts contained phrasing \u2014 even entire paragraphs \u2014 lifted from outlets such as the New York Times, CNN, the Guardian, the LA Times and the BBC between 2015 and 2019, often under the byline \u201cSnopes staff\u201d or while using the pseudonym Jeff Zarronandia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cZarronandia\u201d was illustriously described in his Snopes bio as a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and someone talented at \u201cmule-skinning,\u201d whose seemingly informed stories on everything from arts and culture to national politics had in the past drawn ridicule from the likes of former Donald Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, BuzzFeed said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/david-mikkelson-001.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"David Mikkelson\" class=\"wp-image-19125939\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/david-mikkelson-001.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/david-mikkelson-001.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/david-mikkelson-001.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>David Mikkelson founded Snopes.com with then-wife Barbara Hamel in 1995, billing the site as \u201cthe internet\u2019s definitive fact-checking site.\u201d<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">David Mikkelson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Snopes\u2019 reporters have also jointly issued a statement, writing that they \u201cstrongly condemn these poor journalistic practices,\u201d adding that they \u201cwork hard every day to uphold the highest possible journalistic and ethical standards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As of late Friday, Snopes had retracted 60 articles and disable advertisements on those webpages, according to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/13\/business\/media\/snopes-plagiarism-David-Mikkelson.html\">the New York Times<\/a>, and will continue making retractions as they conduct their own internal investigation. The company was said to have already flagged 140 articles for review. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n    <\/aside>\n<p>One such cribbed passage, written by Jon Schuppe for NBC <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>eared on Snopes.com under Mikkelson\u2019s own byline: \u201cMuhammad Ali, the silver-tongued boxer and civil rights champion who famously proclaimed himself \u2018The Greatest\u2019 and then spent a lifetime living up to the billing, is dead.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Mikkelson attempted to explain for his crimes in an interview with BuzzFeed. \u201cI didn\u2019t come from a journalism background,\u201d he told them. \u201cI wasn\u2019t used to doing news aggregation. A number of times I crossed the line to where it was copyright infringement. I own that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mikkelson insists that Zarronandia was created as a \u201cstress-relief thing\u201d during the fraught 2016 presidential election, when the concept of \u201cfact-checking\u201d became an ethical beacon for some, and a political bane to others. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/buzz-feed-plagiarized-stories-0012.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"plagiarized articles on Snopes.com\" class=\"wp-image-19125979\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/buzz-feed-plagiarized-stories-0012.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/buzz-feed-plagiarized-stories-0012.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/buzz-feed-plagiarized-stories-0012.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>When using plagiarized material, Snopes.com founder Mikkelson often but not always used the pseudonym Jeff Zarronandia or publish under the \u201cSnopes staff\u201d byline.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">BuzzFeed News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s have some fun and watch these people vent their spleen inventing reasons why this nonexistent persona is biased,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>However, insiders revealed to BuzzFeed that Mikkelson\u2019s habit was driven by a need to drive traffic to the website \u2014 by being one of the first sites to rehash the most trending news headlines.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n    <\/aside>\n<p>\u201cHe would instruct [writers] to copy text from other sites, post them verbatim so that it looked like we were fast and could scoop up traffic, and then change the story in real time,\u201d Snopes\u2019 former managing editor Brooke Binkowski told BuzzFeed. \u201cI hated it and wouldn\u2019t tell any of the staff to do it, but he did it all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The revelation comes in the aftermath of the heated divorce between Mikkelson and Snopes\u2019 co-founder Barbara Hamel in 2015, which led to Hamel\u2019s share of the company being sold to tech firm Proper <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Media<\/a>. In 2017, the company filed suit against Mikkelson, claiming he\u2019d mismanaged Snopes\u2019 finances \u2014 and at the same time Mikkelson launched his own GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the website.\n                        <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/08\/13\/banned-snopes-co-founder-plagiarized-dozens-of-stories\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Banned Snopes co-founder plagiarized dozens of stories&#8221; Sometimes the facts are stranger than fiction \u2014 and sometimes the facts are plagiarized. The co-founder of myth-debunking website Snopes has been exposed as a plagiarist, according to a BuzzFeed News investigation. David Mikkelson, who launched Snopes in 1995 with a mission to be \u201cthe internet\u2019s definitive fact-checking&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":323816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/buzz-feed-plagiarized-stories-00155.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[114188,74695,40445,74478],"class_list":["post-323815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-8-13-21","tag-ethics","tag-media","tag-plagiarism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}