Snopes is the world-famous site known for its debunking of internet rumors.
It is also horrendously biased, has been plagued by scandal, and plays fast and loose with the truth when it serves its purposes.
On Tuesday, I wrote about the VA banning Eisenstaedt’s iconic photo “The Kiss,” which depicted a sailor planting a kiss on a woman in Times Square while celebrating V-J Day (Victory over Japan).
It is one of the most famous photographs in the world, and has been memorialized around the world in statues and monuments.
The outcry was so quick and so complete that the VA reversed course almost immediately.
Now Snopes is trying to memory-hole the affair.
Incredible.
Snopes rates it false but then admits that it was actually a real memo rescinded by the Biden VA after public outcry. pic.twitter.com/5bneAfT0MU
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 6, 2024
Snopes is claiming that it is false that the Biden VA banned the photo because the policy is no longer in effect. They even wrongly claimed that it was an error that the memo went out. It was not.
These claims are false. On March 5, Secretary for Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough shared the photo on X, stating, “Let me be clear: This image is not banned from VA facilities – and we will keep it in VA facilities.”
Instead, the memo was put out by an Assistant Secretary, and the Secretary himself claims (and I believe him) that he never approved it. He reversed the policy.
Even Snopes, deep in the text of their explanation, has to admit this:
The memo is not, in fact, a fabrication, however. As first reported by The Daily Caller, VA officials confirmed that the memo, which requested such a policy, was a real document, but that its distribution was made in error. An official with the Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed this account to Snopes, as well.
The since-rescinded memo, sent from the VA Office of the Assistant Under Secretary of Health for Operations, stated that photo should be removed on the grounds that it depicted a non-consensual kiss:
Without the public and political pressure, the policy would have gone into effect. The memo was rescinded, not a fabrication.
Snopes’ claim is that since the policy was reversed, the photo was never banned. That is like saying the reversal of the decision to remove the statue of William Penn in Philadelphia never happened because public pressure made the administration change course.
Snopes has a habit of pulling these sleights of hand–and worse.
Snopes has written dozens of fake news articles about me for decades, long before you started your awesome acct in 2022. They were forced to change several. The founder was kicked out & in court for spending funds on illegal activity& plagiarizing way more articles than this. pic.twitter.com/XW5QAY91R7
— Erin Elizabeth Health Nut News 🙌 (@unhealthytruth) March 6, 2024
By slapping a big ol’ FALSE on the claim Snopes is trying to gaslight you, using its reputation as a “fact checker” to smear people whom the site’s administrators don’t like.
You have to admit that this is a pretty ballsy thing to do. Slap a FALSE label on a claim that is demonstrably true. Perhaps the writers at SNOPES are hoping for a job at Poynter or MSNBC.