Did movie review site Rotten Tomatoes introduce a new negative scoring system to rate especially bad Christian movies? Nope, that's not true: the fake story was intended as a piece of satire and the news is not real.
It appeared on The Babylon Bee on April 5, 2018 underd the headline "Rotten Tomatoes Introduces New Negative Scores For Faith-Based Films" (archived here) and opened:
U.S.--Shortly after the release of God's Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness, popular review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes announced it would now be allowing negative scores exclusively for faith-based films.
Well-reviewed films will continue to receive a "fresh" rating, while films with lots of negative reviews will continue to receive a "rotten" rating, and aggressively bad faith-based films will now receive the site's new "putrid pile of festering garbage" rating.
The story said the minimum possible score was now -382% and that the 2018 movie "God's Not Dead" was the first to receive such a rating.
A quick check of the actual rating of the movie on Rotten Tomatoes reveals the truth:
Several people clearly think the movie stinks but the review system does not allow negative ratings.
Which shouldn't be too surprising as The Babylon Bee comes with following dislaimer on every page:
The Babylon Bee is Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire.
Some of their greatest past hits include:
- Joel Osteen Sails Luxury Yacht Through Flooded Houston To Pass Out Copies Of 'Your Best Life Now'
- Steven Furtick Signs 6-Year, $110 Million Contract With Lakewood Church
- Another Actress Accuses Kirk Cameron Of Treating Her With Respect
- ISIS Lays Down Arms After Katy Perry's Impassioned Plea To 'Like, Just Co-Exist'
With a track record like that it is clear that you shouldn't take anything posted on the site seriously and you definitely shouldn't confuse it with real news. We wrote about babylonbee.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Hershey's Did NOT Replace Kisses With More Pure Sidehugs For Christian Market
- Fake News: 2018 Spending Bill Does NOT Include $30 Million For Paying Off Trump Mistresses
- Fake News: Ken Ham NOT Arrested For Vandalizing Grand Canyon Signs
- Fake News: Jim Bakker Did NOT Say 'Trump Was Merely Sharing The Gospel With That Porn Star'
- Fake News: President Trump Did NOT Declare The Babylon Bee His Most-Trusted News Source
