The left-wing fact checking website Snopes has turned to user donations to fund its website operations amid a nasty legal struggle.
Snopes has launched a new initiative titled #SaveSnopes and is asking fans for donations. The company’s finances were already under a cloud following accusations against CEO David Mikkelson of embezzling company funds during divorce proceedings. The Save Snopes website reads:
Snopes.com, which began as a small one-person effort in 1994 and has since become one of the Internet’s oldest and most popular fact-checking sites, is in danger of closing its doors. So, for the first time in our history, we are turning to you, our readership, for help.
Snopes then explains that they have limited access to their own website, speaking of an “outside vendor” that would provide “certain services” to Snopes:
We had previously contracted with an outside vendor to provide certain services for Snopes.com. That contractual relationship ended earlier this year, but the vendor will not acknowledge the change in contractual status and continues to essentially hold the Snopes.com web site hostage. Although we maintain editorial control (for now), the vendor will not relinquish the site’s hosting to our control, so we cannot modify the site, develop it, or — most crucially — place advertising on it. The vendor continues to insert their own ads and has been withholding the advertising revenue from us.
Despite these claims, just last year Mikkelsen was demanding an extremely high salary for his work at Snopes. According to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail, Mikkelsen demanded that his salary from Snopes be increased from $240,000 a year to $360,000, a sum that Mikkelsen believed was below “industry standards.” He argued that he should be making up to $720,000 a year. “As I said, based on industry standards and our revenues, my salary should be about 2x to 3x what it is now,” David wrote in an email to Barbara in April of 2016. “I’ll settle for $360K with the understanding that it’s to be retroactive to the start of the year.” This request was disputed by his ex-wife and Snopes partner.
Snopes was also named as one of Facebook’s fact-checking arbiters as part of their initiative to fight “fake news” on the Facebook platform. News stories posted to Facebook will now be reviewed by third party fact-checkers and be marked with a note judging the truthfulness of the article. “We’ll use the reports from our community, along with other signals, to send stories to these organizations,” Facebook VP Adam Mosseri wrote in the Facebook news blog. “If the fact checking organizations identify a story as fake, it will get flagged as disputed and there will be a link to the corresponding article explaining why.”
Snopes has a history of employing leftists that express open disdain for conservatives and President Trump while attempting to brand themselves as “neutral.” Snopes fact checker and staff writer David Emery posted to Twitter in 2016 asking if there were “any un-angry Trump supporters?” Vulture magazine published a tweet which read, “#Hamilton Chicago show interrupted by angry Trump supporter.” Emery retweeted the story, adding, “Are there un-angry Trump supporters?”
In another tweet in which Emery links to an article that falsely attributes a quote to President-elect Trump, Emery states, “Incredibly, some people actually think they have to put words in Trump’s mouth to make him look bad.”
In another tweet in which Emery links to an article that falsely attributes a quote to President-elect Trump, Emery states, “Incredibly, some people actually think they have to put words in Trump’s mouth to make him look bad.”
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com