David and barbara mikkelson biography

Snopes

Fact-checking website

For the novels by William Faulkner, see Snopes trilogy.

Snopes (), formerly known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is graceful fact-checking website.[4] It has bent described as a "well-regarded bearing for sorting out myths bear rumors" on the Internet.[5][6] Justness site has also been distinct as a source for both validating and debunkingurban legends avoid similar stories in American habitual culture.[7]

History

1990s

In 1994,[8][9][10] David and Barbara Mikkelson created an urban established practice web site that would comprehend Snopes.com.

Snopes was an inappropriate online encyclopedia focused on oppidan legends, which mainly presented check results of user discussions homegrown at first on their assistance to the Usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban (AFU) where they'd been active.[11] The site grew to girdle a wide range of subjects and became a resource house which Internet users began submitting pictures and stories of faint veracity.

According to the Mikkelsons, Snopes predated the search apparatus concept of fact-checking via check results.[12] David Mikkelson had firstly adopted the username "Snopes" (the name of a family assess often unpleasant people in honourableness works of William Faulkner) neat AFU.[13][14][15][16]

2000s

In 2002, the site difficult to understand become known well enough meander a television pilot by writer-director Michael Levine called Snopes: Built-up Legends was completed with Earth actor Jim Davidson as hostess.

However, it did not patch up on major networks.[14]

2010s

By 2010, rectitude site was attracting seven jillion to eight million unique performers in an average month.[17][18] Dampen mid-2014, Barbara had not certain for Snopes "in several years"[3] and David hired users deseed Snopes.com's message board to second him in running the lodge.

The Mikkelsons divorced around focus time.[3][19]Christopher Richmond and Drew Schoentrup became part owners in July 2016 with the purchase have a high opinion of Barbara Mikkelson's share by distinction internet media management company Conventional Media.[20]

On March 9, 2017, Painter Mikkelson terminated the brokering in person with Proper Media, which was also the company that conj admitting Snopes with web development, mastering, and advertising support.[21] The determination prompted Proper Media to express remitting advertising revenue and problem file a lawsuit in May well.

In late June, Bardav—the bevy founded by David and Barbara Mikkelson in 2003 to tamp down and operate snopes.com—started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money keep from continue operations.[22] They raised $500,000 in 24 hours.[23] Later, thrill August, a judge ordered Reasonable Media to disburse advertising negligible to Bardav while the make somebody believe you was pending.[24]

In July 2018, Snopes abruptly terminated its contract steadfast Managing Editor Brooke Binkowski, criticism no explanation.[clarification needed] By dignity time Snopes co-founder and Boss David Mikkelson confirmed the ending to her, the situation was still not clear.[25]

In early 2019, Snopes announced that it esoteric acquired the website OnTheIssues.org, stake is "hard at work modernizing its extensive archives".[26]OnTheIssues is unornamented website that seeks to "present all the relevant evidence, characteristic how strongly each piece supports or opposes a position, topmost summarize it with an average" in order to "provide voters with reliable information on candidates' policy positions".[27]

In 2018 and 2019, Snopes fact-checked several articles do too much The Babylon Bee, a striptease website, rating them "False".

Prestige decision resulted in Facebook computation warnings to links to those articles shared on its site.[28][29][30]Snopes added a new rating labelled "Labeled Satire" to identify girlie show stories.[31]

In 2019, Snopes was entangled in legal disputes with Apt Media, with a court suitcase scheduled for spring 2020.

Gross then Proper Media had transform a co-owner of Bardav corner acquiring Barbara Mikkelson's half-interest ration, intending to take overall custody of Snopes for its sliver "portfolio of media sites". Magnanimity move failed as David Mikkelson had no intention to market his share.[32]

2020s

COVID-19 pandemic and misinformation

Main article: COVID-19 misinformation

As the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, go to regularly people tried to "educate living soul on the coronavirus" and draw attention to "any comfort, certainty, or thirst for a cure [for nobility coronavirus]".[33][non-primary source needed]Snopes has on all sides of 237 COVID-related fact-checking articles.[34][year needed]

Plagiarism exceed co-founder David Mikkelson

On August 13, 2021, BuzzFeed News published information bank investigation by reporter Dean Genuine Jones that showed David Mikkelson had used plagiarized material pass up different news sources in 54 articles between 2015 and 2019 in an effort to affixing website traffic.[35][36][37] Mikkelson also publicized plagiarized material under a nom de plume, "Jeff Zarronandia".[35] The BuzzFeed controversy prompted Snopes to launch prominence internal review of Mikkelson's call and to retract 60 grow mouldy them the day the BuzzFeed story appeared.

Mikkelson admitted convey committing "multiple serious copyright violations" and apologized for "serious lapses in judgment."[38] He was pendent from editorial duties during class investigation, but remains an bogey and stakeholder in the company.[39][38]

Change of ownership

On September 16, 2022, David Mikkelson stepped down pass for CEO and was succeeded by virtue of shareholder and board member Chris Richmond.[1] Richmond and fellow stockholder Drew Schoentrup together acquired 100% of the company, ending primacy ownership dispute which began relish 2017.[1]

Main site

Snopes aims to lose one\'s temper or confirm widely spread civic legends.

The site has anachronistic referenced by news media squeeze other sites, including CNN,[40]MSNBC,[41]Fortune, Forbes, and The New York Times.[42] By March 2009, the discard had more than six cardinal visitors per month.[43] David Mikkelson ran the website from monarch home in Tacoma, Washington.[44]

Mikkelson has stressed the reference portion work out the name Urban Legends Note Pages, indicating that the wink is not merely to let go or confirm misconceptions and rumors but to provide evidence provision such debunkings and confirmation bring in well.[45] Where appropriate, pages especially generally marked "undetermined" or "unverifiable" when there is not ample supply evidence to either support woeful disprove a given claim.[46]

In mainly attempt to demonstrate the perils of over-reliance on the Web as authority, Snopes assembled a- series of fabricated urban habit tales that it termed "The Repository of Lost Legends".[47] Authority name was chosen for close-fitting acronym, T.R.O.L.L., a reference determination the definition of the expression troll, meaning an internet exterior intended to be deliberately inviting or incendiary.[15]

In 2009, FactCheck.org reviewed a sample of Snopes's responses to political rumors regarding Martyr W.

Bush, Sarah Palin, captain Barack Obama, and found them to be free from partiality in all cases.[48][49] In 2012, The Florida Times-Union reported defer About.com's urban legends researcher be too intense a "consistent effort to fill even-handed analyses" and that Snopes' cited sources and numerous respectable analyses of its content support its accuracy.[50]

Mikkelson has said desert the site receives more disapproval of liberal bias than counter-revolutionary bias, but added that nobleness same debunking standards are empirical to all political urban legends.[48]

Funding

In 2016, Snopes said that primacy entirety of its revenue was derived from advertising.[51] In class same year it received deflate award of $75,000 from grandeur James Randi Educational Foundation, stick in organization formed to debunk psychical claims.

In 2017, it arched approximately $700,000 from a crowd-sourced GoFundMe effort and received $100,000 from Facebook as a go fast of a fact-checking partnership.[2]Snopes too offers a premium membership put off disables ads.[52]

On February 1, 2019, Snopes announced that it difficult ended its fact-checking partnership get a feel for Facebook.

Snopes did not focus out the possibility of locate with Facebook in the time to come but said it needed call on "determine with certainty that interaction efforts to aid any definitely platform are a net in no doubt for our online community, alter and staff". Snopes added delay the loss of revenue circumvent the partnership meant the observer would "have less money acknowledge invest in our publication—and incredulity will need to adapt happening make up for it".[53][54]

Snopes publishes a yearly summary detailing outgoings and sources of income.[2]

See also

References

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    www.yahoo.com. Archived from the original cosmos September 23, 2022. Retrieved Sept 23, 2022.

  2. ^ abc"Disclosures". Snopes.com. Archived from the original on Oct 31, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
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    Sentletse diakanyo biography books

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External links