SPLC doxxes writers for Babylon Bee's sister site; Elon Musk calls group 'criminal organization'
A far-left civil rights group has released a report attacking the Christian satire site The Babylon Bee and its sister news site, Not The Bee, over business connections tied to CEO Seth Dillon and exposed the identity of the site's writers.
The Southern Poverty Law Center "Hatewatch" Data Lab report focused on Dillon's satirical websites, uncovering not only past business connections tied to Dillon but also the identities of 14 pseudonymous writers for "Not the Bee" — all while the site worked to protect their anonymity.
The SPLC's "Inside the Beehive" report accused Dillon of publishing content that critiques progressive ideologies, particularly on issues related to immigration and gender.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
According to the report, nearly 600 articles on the site have been tagged with terms like "Illegal Immigration," "Biden's Border Bloodbath," and "Deportation Now," with another 800 pieces focused on gender ideology, LGBT topics and "stories [that] frequently misgender and mock" trans-identified men and women.
Noting that "many Not the Bee stories feature strongly anti-[LGBT] and anti-immigrant themes," the report also referred to Not The Bee's use of Bible references, including those about "millstones," a reference to Jesus' warning in the Gospel condemning those who lead children astray, which the report claims targets LGBT people.
In addition to noting Dillon attended a Christian college in Florida, the report lists a number of Dillon's previous ventures. SPLC reports that Dillon ran online so-called "paper mills" offering term paper services for college students for as much as $18.95 per page.
SPLC cited one 2006 customer review claiming one of Dillon's ventures never fulfilled an order. Another review claimed one of his services used "plagiarized" work. Florida made it illegal for businesses to sell term papers to students in 2011.
The report also publicly identified — or "doxxed" — 14 pseudonymous Bee writers, including Managing Editor Joel Berry, who allegedly used the name "Davey Crockett" for 140 articles.
The report also criticized one Bee writer, Peter Heck, for arguing that "the Bible be taught, discussed, analyzed, explained and understood in every public school in the United States." The report linked to a cached version of a 2015 article profiling Heck's career as a public high school teacher, in which he stated, "The entire premise of the course is that an educated person knows the Bible."
SPLC maintains its report was based on "publicly available data" and "publicly viewable source code." The information obtained does not appear to be a data breach "despite the website's efforts to keep information secure," the report stated.
In response to the report, Dillon said in an X post Wednesday that the SPLC "extracted sensitive information from our site, then used that information to contact our writers directly."
Dillon declined to provide additional comment to CP Wednesday and only said, "right now we're exploring legal options."
CP reached out to the SPLC for comment Wednesday. This story will be updated if a response is received.
Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk, who famously gave an interview to The Bee in December 2021, replied to Dillon's post by calling the SPLC "a criminal organization [in my opinion]."
The Christian conservative policy tank, the Family Research Council, also responded to the report, calling it "more shameful behavior" from the SPLC. The group pointed to the 2012 arrest of a Virginia man who used an SPLC "hate map" as a resource in a planned shooting at the Family Research Council's headquarters in Washington, D.C.
"Doxxing individuals you disagree with puts their safety and well-being at risk," the organization said. "As does placing someone on a 'hate map,' like the SPLC did in 2012, which led a gunman to our headquarters with the intent to kill as many staff members as possible, wounding our building manager."
Originally founded to assist poor black communities in the South, the SPLC has faced growing criticism in recent years for its increasingly controversial "hate list," which has expanded its scope to include mainstream pro-life and pro-family organizations that oppose the homosexual and trans agendas, such as Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Institute, the Ruth Institute, the American College of Pediatricians, Do No Harm, Family Watch International and the World Congress of Families.
In March 2021, SPLC Chief of Staff Lecia Brooks claimed to the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that "the Southern Poverty Law Center is not anti-Christian at all" despite the group routinely classifying Christian organizations as "hate" groups.
Brooks said many churches and institutions that oppose "marriage equality" are not on the "hate map" and that over 65% of SPLC staff "identify as Christian."
