The co-founder of Snopes, one of the internet's biggest fact checkers, wrote dozens of plagiarized posts for the site — sometimes under a fake name. buzzfeednews.com/article/deanst…
After inquiries from BuzzFeed News, a Snopes internal review found that co-founder David Mikkelson wrote and published 54 articles with plagiarized material. Snopes says it plans to retract all the offending stories. 
Emails and Slack messages suggest that quickly copying text from a news outlet's story was routine for Mikkelson, who saw the practice as an SEO hack to boost traffic.
Mikkelson also wrote stories under the name Jeff Zarronandia, a byline that appears on at least 23 articles.
The persona, which joking claimed to have won "the Pulitzer Prize for numismatics in 2006," took on a life of its own while writing about the 2016 presidential election.
The persona, which joking claimed to have won "the Pulitzer Prize for numismatics in 2006," took on a life of its own while writing about the 2016 presidential election.
Mikkelson has since been suspended from editorial duties. He remains an officer and 50% shareholder of the company.
Snopes’ editorial staff also disavowed Mikkelson’s behavior in a separate statement signed by eight current writers.
Snopes’ editorial staff also disavowed Mikkelson’s behavior in a separate statement signed by eight current writers.
In an interview, Mikkelson attributed his behavior to a lack of formal journalism experience and said there’s no excuse for "serious lapses in judgement."
As for the Zarronandia pseudonym, Mikkelson says he used it to mislead trolls who targeted Snopes. buzzfeednews.com/article/deanst…
As for the Zarronandia pseudonym, Mikkelson says he used it to mislead trolls who targeted Snopes. buzzfeednews.com/article/deanst…
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