“Fake news you can trust”: How The Babylon Bee brings news satire to the Right

ABSTRACT

The political Left dominated news satire in the United States in the early part of the 21st century with television shows such as The Daily Show and newspapers and sites like The Onion, leading some commentators and scholars to argue that satire leans inherently left or is even the exclusive domain of progressivism. Since 2016, The Babylon Bee, a conservative, Christian news satire website has defied these expectations. This article offers an examination of how The Babylon Bee, has adapted contemporary practices of news satire in the 21st century United States to the conservative perspective. After providing a theoretical definition of “conservative satire,” the paper provides brief historical overviews of news satire since the turn of the century, conservative satire from Ancient Greece to the British Enlightenment, and the founding and evolution of The Babylon Bee. Finally, the author demonstrates how The Bee has brought news satire to the Right in the 21st century by navigating three challenges of the recent American politics of particular importance to conservatives: the divisive figure of Donald Trump, the rise of misinformation, and the nuances of identity politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservatism
• irony
• news satire
• The Babylon Bee

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ One July 2022 headline, for example, read: “‘You Can’t Be Pro-Insurrection And Pro-American,’ Says President Of Nation Founded By An Insurrection” (“’You Can’t Be Pro-Insurrection,”, 2022). Another, published earlier the same month on Independence Day, said: “British Parliament Forms July 4 Commission to Investigate Colonial Insurrection” (“British Parliament Forms,”, 2022).