Glenn Kessler
Conservatives are not going to agree with a lot of points in The New Republic -- and it's more liberal than it used to be in the last century. But there's some common ground when it comes to the media's "fact-checking" operations. There is a lot of opinion smeared all over the "facts."
Washington Post "Fact Checker" Glenn Kessler was one of many liberal pundits tapped by the Columbia Journalism Review to assess the challenges of Campaign 2020. Kessler found it "incredibly depressing" that Trump never seems to change his misleading ways after being flagged 15,000 times by the Post.
Conservative Twitter bubbled over when Politico's Natasha Bertrand and Daniel Lippmann baldly contradicted the facts about Obama CIA director John Brennan's self-defensive lying -- as even Politico has reported.
On Thursday, we noted the "fact checkers" weren't exactly hounding liberal Rep. Adam Schiff for his false statements about the impeachment attempt and the whistleblower. On Friday, Washington Post "fact checker" Glenn Kessler tagged Schiff with his worst rating -- the "Four Pinocchios" -- after The New York Times reported he and his staff were in contact with the vaunted anonymous whistleblower.
We wouldn't normally evaluate a "fact check" when it lines up with all the available facts. But it can be noteworthy when Democrats are tagged as "Four Pinocchios" False. Both the Washington Post Fact Checker and FactCheck.org flagged Senators and presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren for incorrectly claiming Michael Brown was "murdered" in Ferguson, Missouri by police officer Darren Wilson.
The Washington Post Fact Checker team promises "We will strive to be dispassionate and non-partisan, drawing attention to inaccurate statements on both left and right. But we also fact check what matters -- and what matters are people in power." Eyeroll, please! On Thursday, Glenn Kessler and Salvador Rizzo posted an article titled "Fact-checking lawmakers’ claims during the Mueller hearings." They picked on six legislators as dubious....and all six were Republicans.
The liberal subscribers of The Washington Post adored the latest grand ruling from the paper's "Fact Checker," Glenn Kessler. He asserts President Trump has just crossed the threshhold of "10,000 false or misleading claims." Kessler did a round of interviews with delighted anchors on CNN and MSNBC.
Washington Post "Fact Checker" Glenn Kessler did three CNN interviews and an MSNBC interview celebrating his latest finding that President Trump has reached the perpetually perfidious plateau of 10,000 "false or misleading claims." On Monday's New Day, anchor John Berman helpfully set up Kessler to explain all his findings. The part about Russia is the most interesting (and the most obsessive CNN concern).
The Washington Post "Fact Checker" squad has one article featured every Sunday in the A-section. On Easter Sunday, Glenn Kessler established that Democrat presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg should not claim Vice President Mike Pence spoke in favor of "conversion therapy" to press homosexuals to drop their same-sex attraction. "We can find no evidence that Pence ever expressed support for conversion therapy." And yet....where are the Pinocchios?
The Washington Post "Fact Checker" completely avoided any Pinocchios for a fact-mangling Democrat again. That's because the liberals at the Post were upset at the conservative outrage that Rep. Ilhan Omar said "some people did something" on 9/11. The "fact" squad actually defended Omar by comparing her to President George W. Bush's speeches in the days after 9/11. In a speech at a CAIR fundraiser, Omar incorrectly claimed it was "founded after 9/11."
Robert Mueller’s report finding no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government has caused problems for the “fact checkers.” Take the Washington Post “Fact” cops. Their most recent claim is that Trump is guilty of 9,179 “false or misleading claims.” Guess what’s the most repeated claim they have penalty flagged? "I can only tell you one thing -- again, that was proven today: no collusion."
As the Democrats careen to the left (and over a cliff), it should not be surprising that their allied “fact checkers” are running alongside them, trying to “correct” any negative impressions. “Be wary of politicians crying socialism,” warned Washington Post “fact checker” Glenn Kessler recently.