The fact-checking maestro of the Washington Post has accepted a buyout and is moving on to greener pastures, and the announcement led to a retrospective of his worst efforts over his long career.
Glenn Kessler posted on Facebook that he accepted a buyout from the Post after several other notable writers had accepted similar offers, including Jonathan Capehart, Catherine Rampell, and Philip Bump.
Kessler admitted that they simply assumed the incoming Biden administration would be far less deceptive. Ironically, the mainstream media has suffered a serious hit to their credibility after being complicit with the administration hiding Biden’s mental decline.
“After more than 27 years at the Washington Post, including almost 15 as the Fact Checker, I will be leaving on July 31, having taken a buyout,” Kessler wrote. “Much as I would have liked to keep scrutinizing politicians in Washington, especially in this era, the financial considerations were impossible to dismiss.”
He said that the Post had not found someone to replace him as editor of the Fact Checker once he left at the end of July.
Over the years, Blaze News has documented many of Kessler’s biased fact-checks. The following are some of the more egregious examples.
In June 2020, the fact-checker dinged Trump for claiming that the most crime-ridden cities were run by Democrats, but in its fact-check, the Post documented that the vast majority of crime-ridden cities were indeed run by Democrats. They still rated Trump’s claim as incorrect.
In Oct. 2020, he downplayed some of the accusations that tied Joe Biden to selling political influence for the benefit of his son Hunter Biden. Later, Kessler quietly updated the article to admit that some of the evidence had been authenticated.
In Jan. 2021, after the conclusion of Trump’s first term, Kessler admitted that they simply assumed the incoming Biden administration would be far less deceptive. Ironically, the mainstream media has suffered a serious hit to their credibility after being complicit with the administration hiding Biden’s mental decline.
In April 2021, Kessler tried to cast doubt on the inspiring story told by Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina about his roots. Kessler was immediately criticized by many on the right.
Kessler also had other interactions that were criticized on the right.
In April 2020, he retweeted a video that blamed the Trump administration for not doing enough during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, but he later admitted that China’s efforts to conceal the pandemic were to blame instead.
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Photo by Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
On the other hand, not all of Kessler’s fact-checks were rejected by those on the right.
In Aug. 2018, he found five claims made by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) that were ruled false. She responded by blaming sexism.
In March 2021, he nailed then-President Joe Biden with the Post’s strongest rating for lying when Biden mischaracterized new voting laws in Georgia.
In June 2021, Kessler hit Biden for a false claim he made about gun rights that was so wrong it undermined his argument for gun control.
In Sept. 2021, he got Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) office to admit that he misspoke when he claimed all Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan to avoid Taliban rule had already left.
In Feb. 2023, he defended the Trump administration against unfair accusations from the left that Trump’s policies had contributed to the circumstances that led to the disastrous train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Kessler said he wrote or edited more than 3,000 articles at the Fact Checker.
“My fact checks were routinely the most-read articles on the Post’s website,” he added. “I had my detractors, from both the left and right, but many readers appreciated my efforts to sort out the truth in political rhetoric.”
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