Insect-Sized Scoop: Miami Herald Hypes DeSantis Renting a List from The Babylon Bee

The “objective” papers first wage war against Republicans. When Republicans label them fake news, they then write hateful articles complaining about being called “fake information”. The Miami Herald published an article headlined “Fake News” that read:

DeSantis calls out ‘fake news,’ but his campaign used fake news site to raise cash

Reporter Ben Wieder started his insect-sized story: 

Florida Governor. Ron DeSantis isn’t shy about labeling “fake news media” the enemy. But when it comes to raising money for his reelection bid, the Republican governor’s campaign and an associated political committee have sought help from a satire website with the tagline “Fake news you can trust.”

The governor’s campaign committee as well as the associated Friends of Ron DeSantis political action committee The Babylon Bee, a conservative-leaning satire site, was awarded $15,000 total in 2012According to the state’s campaign finance records, you can find services that relate to online fundraising.

The reporter acknowledges that this is just a data point. 

This practice is commonly referred to renting a list. According to Open Secrets, the parent companies of conservative news sites, the Daily Wire and Daily Caller were co-founded in Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson respectively. The liberal news site Daily Kos was founded by Markos Moulitsas. 

DeSantis committees paid $7,500 and $38,000 respectively to Daily Wire, LLC, as well as Blaze Media, LLC, which is Glenn Beck’s associated company, Blaze Media, LLC.

The only Florida political committees to have paid The Babylon Bee (based in Jupiter) for fundraising support are two DeSantis ones, Florida campaign finance records show. The expenses were coded as “LIST RENTAL” and “EMAIL SERVICES.” No federal political committee has paid the website, either, according to federal campaign finance data.

This article was concluded with Sheila Krumholz’s quote at Open Secrets, a campaign finance site. “A satire site sounds like a creative way to reach people that might be reachable and not necessarily in your choir,” she said.

Ed Morrissey, Hot Air’s founder, put it perfectly: 

It is embarrassing. @MiamiHerald. Babylon Bee is not fake news, but a site that entertains. Your report is “fake news” because they aren’t claiming to have “news”.

Can you see the difference? You don’t see the difference? https://t.co/IugkbZBAd9

— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) April 5, 2022