The Babylon Bee's Seth Dillon talks Biden's misinformation crackdown and finding success amid attacks from the left
The Babylon Bee CEO discusses the White House's misinformation crackdown on social media and finding success as a conservative satire website
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon weighed in on the "misinformation" war and how his satirical news site has been able to thrive amid a constant onslaught from the left.
Appearing at Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit in Tampa, Dillon knocked the Biden administration's efforts to combat so-called coronavirus "misinformation" on social media, which he said suggests that Big Tech is "acting like an arm of the government" and that such companies have become "state actors."
"It's really troubling to see them going in that direction and speaking about it so openly, like they're not even trying to hide that that's how they're working together with Facebook," Dillon said during an interview with Fox News on Monday. "I really think they're giving a handout to anybody who's seeking to fight in court to argue that Facebook is acting on behalf of the government and, you know, requires some kind of regulation for that reason. So, it's really interesting to see what's going on there but I think it's also, you know, pretty disturbing."
When asked if he was concerned that the White House would eventually take aim on the Babylon Bee over "misinformation," Dillon acknowledged that "the left has made us a target," pointing to the coverage the satirical site received from The New York Times, which resulted in a retraction.
"I don't expect it to come from the White House for them to get involved with us, but I think honestly- look, this is a way of gauging success in my mind," Dillon told Fox News. "If they were to attack us that way. I mean, that means we're doing something right."
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon said his satirical news site is "punching back" amid censorship attempts from the left.
Dillon spoke at length about how the Bee has become a frequent target of liberals, calling it "intimidating" but also "encouraging" at the same time.
"On one level, it is a little bit scary to have like people in positions of power like that saying those kinds of things because- I mean, these are things that threaten the business," Dillon said. "I don't think a lot of people understand that the focus has been so much on getting misinformation off of these platforms. And if you get lumped in with the end of that bucket, and you're considered misinformation, you're not going to have a home on YouTube or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or any of them. You're going to be off of all of them. So our business is driven by traffic and shares and engagement on those platforms, so it's really important for us to maintain that and to see attacks coming from that place, it's like, you know, this is the business is in jeopardy. So on the one hand, you know, it's very intimidating."
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"On the other hand… I think it's encouraging. It's a combination of intimidation and encouragement at the same time because it's like we are, we are in a battle right now, we're often accused of punching down the likes to be punched down, I can't make jokes about women because they're beneath me. I guess that'd be punching down… we're really punching back," Dillon continued. "You know, the culture war- we've been on the ropes and for a long time. I think we're defending ourselves against attacks, they're coming from the top down, they're coming from politicians, celebrities, corporations, the biggest of all of them. So we're really, honestly, conservatives doing comedy are really kind of like in the fetal position curled up on the floor trying to just stay alive and fight back, they're not really punching down on anyone. So I do think it's encouraging to some extent too."
Dillon reflected on the Babylon Bee's successes, which began at the tail end of the Obama administration in 2016, exploded during the Trump era and continued under Biden.
"When conservatives are winning, they're under a lot of attack and there's a lot to fight back against, And when conservatives are losing, there's a lot at stake… and there's a lot of, you know, targets you want to go after to be proactive in that fight," Dillon explained. "So I think, really, it doesn't really matter to us from a business perspective and for, like, popularity and how we grow, it doesn't really matter who's in power. Obviously, we have our own preferences for what we would like to see. But as far as how that plays out, it works either way."
The Babylon Bee CEO did acknowledge how both President Biden and former President Trump are "difficult to satirize" since they are "like parodies of themselves."
"Trump is like this larger-than-life character, he says ridiculous things you'd never expect anybody to say, he's not politically correct. Biden, you can quote him verbatim and it seems like satire," Dillon elaborated. "So, both of them present their own challenges. I don't think it really makes much of a difference to us whether or not one or the other is in power."
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Dillon also spoke about how the left has tried to "strangle comedy" with various "rules" to prevent people from being offended, boasting how the Bee makes jokes "you're not allowed to make."
"A comedian's job is to flout those rules and to make fun of whoever the idiot was who presented them to you," Dillon explained. "Comedians who, like, self-censor and response to that power move of trying to like get satirists and comedians in line, they are themselves a joke… So I think what we do differently is we simply make the jokes that you're not supposed to make. We're very politically incorrect, we're attacking the sacred cows of the powers that mean."
He added, "It's my hope that we encourage more people to do it because there need to be more people who are making those kinds of jokes. I think comedians need a backbone and the comedians that take advantage of that situation, this fertile environment where leftists have choked themselves and they're silencing themselves, there's a huge opportunity for comedians to like rise up and fill that gap."
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