Snopes Under Legal Attack from Salon.com

Re:Snopes Under Legal Attack from Salon.com by mcv on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @09:58AM (#21514566)

This article is very light on details. Apparently, this lawsuit has its source in the divorce between David and Barbara Mikkelsen, the two founders of Snopes. Barbara sold her shares to a couple of people who also owned the company that handled advertising for Snopes. That company, Proper Media, at some point withheld ad revenue from Snopes which nearly killed Snopes[0]. Now they have acquired Salon, and this article makes it sound like they're using Salon's resources to continue the legal battle, but I have no idea if that's the case.

It would have been nice if Snopes of all sites had provided a bit more background on this, though I suppose they can never be considered impartial on their own legal struggles, so perhaps they're right to keep this brief.

[0] https://nypost.com/2019/05/16/salon-media-sold-for-5-million...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Snopes Under Legal Attack from Salon.com by duxup on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @11:18AM (#21515257)

"Barbara sold her shares to a couple of people who also owned the company that handled advertising for Snopes."

That really reads like a decision just bound to bring up more conflict...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Snopes Under Legal Attack from Salon.com by hinkley on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @12:38PM (#21516090)

You don't think that was the plan? Sounds to me like the sort of thing that happens all the time in messy divorces.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Snopes Under Legal Attack from Salon.com by iaw on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @12:55PM (#21516264)

It's possible that, because the litigation in ongoing, Snopes is avoiding talking about the details of the case itself as most counsel seems to advise.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Snopes Under Legal Attack from Salon.com by sgwealti on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @10:44AM (#21514945)

Thanks for the background. I'm sympathetic to Snopes but it's very un-Snopes-like for them to leave this context out of their post.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Snopes Under Legal Attack from Salon.com by bitwize on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @10:46AM (#21514964)

Snopes as you know it was largely Barbara's doing. Now that it's out of her hands, expect a shitshow.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Snopes Under Legal Attack from Salon.com by mcv on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @11:28AM (#21515341)

Was it largely Barbara's project? That makes the change of ownership a lot more accurate, since she's not owning any of it now. I got the impression David considered it mostly his, but that disagreement might well be the reason for the messy divorce.

I clearly don't know enough about the background to make any call on who's right and who's wrong here.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Snopes Under Legal Attack from Salon.com by bitwize on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @02:27PM (#21517214)

David started the site based on his postings to alt.folklore.urban, but as I recall most of the Snopes articles on the site back in the day had Barbara's signature on them. So even if David thought of it as his and ran the operations, Barbara provided most if the content and set the tone.

They divorced because David was having affairs with multiple women, ostensibly even using Snopes money for prostitutes. Of course even if not the primary cause of the divorce, a husband-and-wife business is going to make the divorce messier.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Snopes Under Legal Attack from Salon.com by smsm42 on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @12:59PM (#21516314)

So, essentially, they are asking the readers to finance the founders' bad divorce fallout? And present it as a First Amendment issue? Nice move for a respected fact checker and truth gatekeeper.

[ Parent | on HN ]