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Glenn Kessler (journalist)
Glenn Kessler (journalist)
Glenn Kessler (journalist)
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Glenn Kessler (born July 6, 1959) is an American editor and writer, most known for his work at The Washington Post from 1998 to 2025. He wrote a feature, "The Fact Checker", for the Post from 2011 to 2025.[1][2]

Key Information

Career

[edit]

Kessler is a 1981 graduate of Brown University[3] and received a Masters of International Affairs in 1983 from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.[4]

Kessler is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[5]

Kessler joined The Washington Post in 1998 as the national business editor and later served as economic policy reporter for two years and diplomatic correspondent for nine years.[6] Kessler also was a reporter with Newsday for eleven years, covering the White House, politics, the United States Congress, airline safety and Wall Street.[7][8][9] His examination of the government's failure to recognize that DC-9-10 jets were susceptible to stalling in icy conditions[10] won the Premier Award from the Aviation/Space Writers Association.[11]

At Newsday, Kessler shared in two Pulitzer Prizes given for spot news reporting.[12]

Kessler played a role in two foreign policy controversies during the presidency of George W. Bush. He was called to testify in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in which he was questioned about a 2003 telephone conversation with Libby in which the name of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, might have been discussed.[13] (Libby recalled they had discussed Plame; Kessler said they did not.[14]) Meanwhile, a 2004 telephone conversation between Kessler and Steve J. Rosen, a senior official at American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), was at the core of the AIPAC leaking case.[15] The federal government recorded the call and made it the centerpiece of its 2005 indictment of Rosen and an alleged co-conspirator; the charges were dropped in 2009.

Kessler wrote the first article on the North Korea nuclear facility being built in Syria that was destroyed by Israeli jets.[16] Kessler also wrote about the Bush administration's internal decision-making that led to the Iraq war.[17]

Kessler accepted a buyout after downsizing at The Washington Post, with his final column published on July 31, 2025.[2]

Washington Post Fact Checker

[edit]

In his Washington Post "Fact Checker" column, Kessler rates statements by politicians, usually on a range of one to four Pinocchios – with one Pinocchio for what he argues are minor shading of the facts and four Pinocchios for what he judges as outright lies.[18] If he judges that the statement is truthful, the person will get a rare "Geppetto." Kessler has a new column at least five times a week; one column appears every week in the Sunday print edition of The Washington Post. Kessler's team includes another reporter and a video producer, who also write fact checks edited by Kessler.

Kessler, who took charge of the Fact Checker column in January 2011, is considered one of the pioneers in political fact checking,[19] a movement that inspired nearly 300 fact-checking organizations in 83 countries, according to a tally by the Duke Reporters' Lab.[20] In 1996, while at Newsday, "Kessler wrote what may have been the first lengthy fact-check story in a major American newspaper, a preemptive guide to a debate between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole aimed at helping viewers evaluate the claims they were about to hear."[21] He documented the growth of fact checking around the world in an article for Foreign Affairs magazine, written after training journalists in Morocco.[22]

James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal has criticized the whole idea of awarding Pinocchios as akin to movie-reviewing, saying "the 'fact check' is opinion journalism or criticism, masquerading as straight news."[23] The conservative Power Line political blog devoted three articles to critiquing one of Kessler's articles, calling him a "liberal reporter", and asserting that "these 'fact-checkers' nearly always turn out to be liberal apologists who don a false mantle of objectivity in order to advance the cause of the Democratic Party."[24][relevant?] Kessler's awarding of Four Pinocchios to GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain for comments he made on Margaret Sanger and the founding of Planned Parenthood was also criticized by opponents of abortion.[25][relevant?] Yet Power Line also said that Kessler's extensive review of Democratic charges that Romney was a "flip-flopper" turned out to be "admirably fair-minded."[26][relevant?]

The liberal blog Talking Points Memo took Kessler to task for giving Four Pinocchios to a Democratic web petition on Medicare, saying the errors he allegedly made "were not just small misses, but big belly flop misses."[27][relevant?] The Obama White House issued a statement titled "Fact Checking the Fact Checker" after Kessler gave Obama Three Pinocchios for statements he made on the auto industry bailout.[28][relevant?] The Democratic National Committee released a statement denouncing "Kessler's hyperbolic, over the top fact check of the DNC's assertion that Mitt Romney supports private Social Security accounts."[29]

During the 2016 presidential campaign, the comic strip Doonesbury highlighted the vast disparity in Pinocchios given to Donald Trump versus Clinton.[30][relevant?] Kessler also appeared in a segment of The Daily Show about fact-checking Trump. "In terms of fact checking, Hillary Clinton is like playing chess with a real pro," he told Jordan Klepper. "Fact-checking Donald Trump is like playing checkers, with somebody who's not very good at it. It's pretty boring. His facts are so easily disproved there's no joy in hunt."[31]

Database of false or misleading Trump claims

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Shortly after Trump became President, Kessler announced a 100-day project to list every false and misleading statement made by Trump while in office.[32] Kessler's team counted 492 untruths in the first 100 days, or an average of 4.9 per day.[33] In response to reader requests, Kessler decided to keep it going for Trump's first year and then his entire presidency. By January 20, 2021, the end of Trump's four-year term, Kessler and his colleagues had counted 30,573 untruths, or an average of 21 a day.[34] "Trump averaged about six claims a day in his first year as president, 16 claims day in his second year, 22 claims day in his third year – and 39 claims a day in his final year." Kessler wrote. "Put another way, it took him 27 months to reach 10,000 claims and another 14 months to reach 20,000. He then exceeded the 30,000 mark less than five months later." The database has drawn nationwide attention and been the subject of academic research.[35][36][37] "Kessler is doing the poet's work. Honor him," wrote New York Times columnist Roger Cohen. "The database he compiles with his colleagues Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly, listing every one of Trump's untruths, will become a reference, a talisman."[38]

Because of the Trump database, Kessler and the Fact Checker Team were nominated in 2020 by the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University for inclusion in a list of the Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade. “A rigorously reported and continually updated list of false statements by the president, numbering more than 19,000 by June 2020. The project is a sterling example of what journalists should do – holding the powerful accountable by using reporting and facts,” the nomination said.[39] Kessler and his team in 2018 were also nominated by The Washington Post for a Pulitzer Prize.[40]

The Washington Post on April 22, 2020, announced[41] that Kessler and his team had written a book, "Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President's Falsehoods, Misleading Claims and Flat-Out Lies," to be published June 2 by Scribner. "More than a catalogue of false claims, Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth is a necessary guide to understanding the motives behind the president's falsehoods," the announcement said. Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, called the book "an extremely valuable chronicle."[42] The book appeared on Publisher Weekly's top ten best-seller list.[43]

Kessler created a database of Joe Biden's false or misleading claims, but only for the first 100 days of his presidency.[44] "I have learned my lesson," Kessler tweeted. "'Learned my lesson' means who knows what the next four years will bring. We have fact-checked Biden rigorously and will continue to do so. Trump at 500 claims/100 days was manageable; 8,000+ was not."[45]

Controversy over Bernie Sanders fact checks

[edit]

In August 2018, Kessler came under fire for his coverage of a Mercatus Center study on the perceived costs of Senator Bernie Sanders's Medicare for All plan.[46][47] Kessler released corrections to his fact check, which stated the Sanders's claims of $2.1 trillion in 10-year National Health Expenditure savings were cherry-picked.[48] Kessler did not change his Three-Pinocchio rating[49] and his findings were affirmed by other fact-checking organizations, including PolitiFact,[50] FactCheck.org[51] and the Associated Press.[52]

In February 2021, Kessler was criticized by socialist magazine Jacobin for an article he wrote in which he rated a statement by Senator Bernie Sanders, in which Sanders had declared that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 had only benefited the wealthy, as three pinocchios. Jacobin criticized Kessler for what they perceived as him ignoring data in his article, and accused him of writing it in order to benefit Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post.[53]

Claim about definition of the word "millions"

[edit]

Kessler has been criticized "for applying bizarrely specific standards to statements and sometimes calling obviously true statements 'misleading' if he doesn't like what they imply."[54] For example, when Bernie Sanders said that “millions” of Americans were working more than one job, Kessler cited Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing that nearly 8 million people held more than one job, but rated Sanders's statement as "misleading" because these 8 million people were just 5 percent of Americans with jobs.[54] Kessler responded to the criticism: "Since there was some Twitter outrage about this assessment, please note that this is a summary of a previous fact check, in which we said Sanders had the 'most accurate sound bite' on this issue among Democrats running for president."[55] He then provided a link to the original column.[56]

Fact check about rape and abortion

[edit]

In July 2022, Kessler was criticized[57][58][59][60] for calling into question, with little evidence, a report of an abortion by a 10-year-old child from Ohio.[61] The report was later exhaustively confirmed by reporters[62] and public records[63] requests. “The intent of the piece was to spotlight the need for careful reporting in a time when information spreads rapidly," Washington Post spokeswoman Shani George told the Associated Press.[64]

In his article, Kessler wrote that, "None of the officials we reached were aware of such a case in their areas." A subsequent Freedom of Information Act request revealed a previous email exchange between Kessler and officials at Children Services for Franklin County, where the alleged assault occurred in which the FCCS replied, "Their agency could not comment on specific cases, because this information is treated as confidential under Ohio law."[65] In a correction, The Washington Post said "an email the county spokeswoman sent was inadvertently missed during the reporting."[66]

After leaving The Post in 2025, Kessler wrote he thought it would have been "appropriate to publicly apologize to the child and the doctor who conducted the abortion" but he "felt muzzled" by the newspaper.[67]

Fact checks examining biographical claims

[edit]

Kessler has conducted a number of fact checks that examined biographical claims. He wrote in 2018 that House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy's claim of being a small-business entrepreneur — “my own deli” — was exaggerated; McCarthy only had a counter in his uncle's yogurt shop for a year.[68] Kessler wrote many fact checks of claims that President Joe Biden made about his life, including whether he was arrested trying to see Nelson Mandela[69] or arrested while advocating for civil rights.[70]

Some of Kessler's biographical fact checks have been criticized by their subjects. Rev. Robert W. Lee IV had stated In The Washington Post, in a lawsuit and at public events that he was a great-great-great-great nephew of Robert E. Lee, but in 2021 Kessler said a review of historical and genealogical records found there is “no evidence that Rob Lee, who was born in North Carolina, is related to Robert E. Lee.”[71] Kessler traced Lee's roots to a confederate soldier in Alabama called Robert S. Lee. In response, Lee said he had withdrawn from the lawsuit. But 8 months later Rob Lee said a 400-page family genealogy report gathered by a hired genealogist had found ties to Lee.[72] The Washington Post said he declined to provide a copy of the report for examination by the newspaper.

Also in 2021, Kessler said he had examined property and census records regarding the family of Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, discovering that Scott's great-grandfather was a substantial landowner.[73] “Scott tells a tidy story packaged for political consumption, but a close look shows how some of his family's early and improbable success gets flattened and written out of his biography,” Kessler wrote. “Against heavy odds, Scott's ancestors amassed relatively large areas of farmland, a mark of distinction in the Black community at the time.”

Scott denounced the article, referring to it in his response to President Biden's address to Congress that “a national newspaper suggested my family's poverty was actually privilege because a relative owned land generations before my time.”[74] Other commentators also criticized the report.[75] “I was really surprised by the intensity of the reaction, much of which was fanned by Fox News,” Kessler said in an interview with National Public Radio. “Not in any way did I ever suggest in the piece that Scott's great-grandfather lived a privileged life. I mean, after all, this is the Jim Crow South we're talking about.”[76]

Awards and honors

[edit]

Personal life

[edit]

Kessler lives in McLean, Virginia, with his wife, Cynthia Rich. They have three children, Andre, Hugo, and Mara.[82][83]

Kessler is a great-grandson of Jean Baptiste August Kessler, an oil industrialist who stood at the basis of the oil supermajor Shell, and a grandson of Geldolph Adriaan Kessler, who helped create the Dutch steel industry through his involvement with Hoogovens.[84] He was born in Cincinnati, where his father, Adriaan Kessler, was an executive at Procter & Gamble,[85] and he attended high school there and in Lexington, Kentucky. Kessler's mother, Else Bolotin, was a psychologist[86] who in Lexington "helped women in that era of feminist awakening confront a society dominated by men."[87] Both of his parents were Dutch, and immigrated to the United States after marriage.[88]

Books

[edit]
  • The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy New York : Saint Martin's Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0312363802
  • Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President's Falsehoods, Misleading Claims and Flat-Out Lies New York : Scribner, 2020. ISBN 978-1982151072

See also

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References

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Sources

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Glenn Kessler (journalist)

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Glenn Kessler is an American journalist who created and led The Washington Post's Fact Checker column from 2011 to 2025, pioneering political fact-checking through the Pinocchio scale that rates statements on a four-nose continuum of falsehoods. With over four decades in journalism, he previously covered foreign policy, economic policy, and White House beats for the Post and earlier outlets like Newsday and The Boston Globe, contributing to award-winning reporting on international diplomacy. His Fact Checker tenure elevated scrutiny of public figures' claims amid rising political polarization, though it drew acclaim for methodological rigor alongside persistent critiques from conservative analysts for systemic bias favoring left-leaning narratives through uneven application of standards and occasional corrections of errors that initially downplayed Democratic inaccuracies. In July 2025, Kessler exited the Post via buyout, citing shifts in media economics and the normalization of falsehoods enabled by social media and figures like Donald Trump, while acknowledging select past misjudgments in his assessments.

Background

Early Life and Education

Glenn Kessler earned a degree in history from in 1981. He subsequently obtained a Master of Arts degree in international affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in 1983.

Professional Career

Pre-Washington Post Roles

Glenn Kessler began his professional career in financial reporting, holding editorial positions such as of Corporate Financing Week and Wall Street Letter, as well as editor of Investment Dealers Digest. From 1987 to 1998, Kessler worked as a reporter for , covering beats including , the , national politics, economic policy, and the . In this period, he advanced to roles such as chief economic correspondent, national political correspondent, and senior editor of the financial desk, overseeing reporting teams in Washington and New York. A key focus of Kessler's early reporting at was airline safety, particularly from October 1988 to December 1992, when his investigative series uncovered fraudulent practices in the industry. These articles led to federal indictments of multiple airline executives and officials for fraud, triggered congressional hearings on aviation oversight, and resulted in new rules mandating safety upgrades for DC-9 aircraft and routine inspections of foreign carriers operating in the United States.

Diplomatic and Foreign Policy Reporting

Kessler joined in 1998 initially focusing on economic policy before shifting to diplomatic correspondence in 2002, serving as the paper's chief State Department reporter until 2010. In this role, he covered U.S. foreign policy initiatives, accompanying Secretaries of State , , and on overseas trips and reporting from dozens of countries worldwide. His dispatches emphasized scrutiny of diplomatic strategies, including the Bush administration's promotion of in the and challenges posed by regional elections. A notable example of his reporting examined the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, where the victory of complicated U.S. efforts to foster democratic governance amid ongoing Israeli-Palestinian tensions; Kessler highlighted how the outcome underscored risks in the administration's approach, potentially undermining broader stability goals with 74 Hamas-affiliated candidates securing seats in the 132-member assembly. He also analyzed the enduring repercussions of President George W. Bush's 2002 "axis of evil" speech, which grouped , , and , noting by 2006 how it strained relations with despite overtures for dialogue on Iraq's security and strained alliances elsewhere. Additional coverage addressed U.S. credibility on , such as 2004 critiques of Bush policies on and proliferation treaties that drew accusations of hypocrisy from European allies and nonproliferation advocates. Kessler's work extended to in-depth examinations of key figures shaping policy, culminating in his 2007 book The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy, which drew on years of access to Rice's inner circle to detail her influence on post-9/11 strategies, including the buildup and negotiations. The reporting prioritized verifiable diplomatic cables, intelligence assessments, and on-site observations over unsubstantiated narratives, contributing to public discourse on policy efficacy without direct attribution to specific legislative or executive shifts.

Other Washington Post Positions

Kessler joined in 1998 as a diplomatic , covering U.S. , State Department operations, and international negotiations. In this role, he reported on key events including talks and , drawing on primary sources such as diplomatic dispatches and official briefings to assess policy effectiveness. He subsequently served as a White House correspondent, focusing on presidential initiatives and economic agendas from 2001 onward. Kessler's coverage included examinations of administration claims on trade deals and fiscal measures, incorporating data from government reports and economic indicators to evaluate stated causal impacts, such as projected job growth from tariffs versus observed trade deficits. Prior to 2011, Kessler also contributed to reporting, analyzing White House proposals on topics like tax reforms and through verifiable metrics including GDP figures and projections. His work in these positions emphasized empirical scrutiny of official narratives, for instance, by cross-referencing policy rationales against historical precedents and contemporaneous data releases from agencies like the Treasury Department.

The Fact Checker Role

Establishment and Methodology

Glenn Kessler established The Washington Post's Fact Checker column as a permanent feature on January 11, 2011, building on an earlier temporary iteration during the 2008 presidential campaign. This revival positioned it as one of the earliest systematic efforts in U.S. journalism to evaluate political statements against empirical evidence, predating the proliferation of dedicated fact-checking outlets. Kessler, drawing from his prior experience scrutinizing campaign claims in 1992 and 1996, aimed to apply rigorous standards to public discourse, focusing on claims amenable to verification rather than subjective interpretations. The column's methodology centers on a four-tier Pinocchios rating system to quantify degrees of inaccuracy: one Pinocchio for minor shading or exaggeration where the statement is mostly true; two for significant omissions rendering it half true; three for major factual errors or misleading presentations that are mostly false; and four for outright whoppers lacking any factual basis. Ratings derive exclusively from verifiable evidence, prioritizing primary sources such as official records, data sets, and direct transcripts over secondary reporting or interpretive analyses from other media. This approach eschews reliance on potentially biased intermediaries, instead cross-referencing claims against raw data to assess causal accuracy and empirical fidelity, with transparency in sourcing mandatory for each evaluation. From inception, the Fact Checker professed an intent to scrutinize statements from politicians across the ideological spectrum impartially, evaluating them on identical evidentiary grounds without deference to partisan affiliation. In its early years before 2016, applications demonstrated this balance through assessments of claims by figures from both major parties, underscoring a commitment to accountability via consistent application of objective criteria rather than selective outrage. The framework explicitly distinguishes facts from opinions, rating only the former to maintain focus on what can be empirically disproven or confirmed.

Database of Trump Statements

The Washington Post Fact Checker, under Glenn Kessler's leadership, launched a database in 2017 to systematically catalog public statements by President rated as false or misleading. Initially focused on his first 100 days in office, the project drew from official transcripts of speeches, interviews, press conferences, and posts to ensure comprehensive coverage of verifiable claims. By the end of Trump's first term on January 20, 2021, the database tallied 30,573 such statements, averaging about 21 per day. Verification relied on empirical data from primary sources, including U.S. government agencies like the for economic metrics and Customs and Border Protection for figures, cross-referenced against historical records to assess accuracy. Claims were classified as false if directly contradicted by —such as assertions of record-low unemployment rates ignoring prior lows under previous administrations—or misleading if they distorted causal relationships, like overstating trade deficit reductions without accounting for baseline fluctuations. The process emphasized repetition analysis, revealing patterns where individual falsehoods were reiterated hundreds of times; for instance, Trump made 493 claims that the U.S. economy was the "greatest in history," despite GDP growth rates peaking at levels seen under prior presidents and figures not surpassing all-time records when adjusted for demographics. Categorization by topic underscored empirical trends, with economy-related claims comprising a significant portion (over 20%), followed by and foreign policy. Examples include repeated policy misstatements, such as claiming the U.S.-Mexico border wall was fully funded and effective in stopping crossings, when construction covered only portions of the border and apprehension data showed no causal drop attributable to new barriers amid varying enforcement factors. The database's scale responded to the high volume of Trump's public utterances—far exceeding predecessors—enabling quantitative tracking rather than selective fact-checks. Fact-checking efforts extended beyond the first term, with Kessler's team continuing to scrutinize Trump's statements through his 2024 campaign and into 2025, though without maintaining a singular cumulative tally equivalent to the presidential database. This ongoing work documented persistent patterns, such as election-related claims, but emphasized the original project's role in establishing a baseline for repetition-driven . The database has been cited in analyses of political for its granular data on claim frequency and thematic clustering, highlighting how sustained falsehoods can embed despite contradictory evidence.

Fact-Checks on Democrats and Others

Kessler issued fact-checks on statements by Democratic figures, including multiple instances of three- or four-Pinocchio ratings for misleading claims on policy and history. For example, in February 2016, he awarded three Pinocchios for asserting that Republicans sought to "turn Social Security over to ," as the claim overstated limited proposals for partial discussed in prior Republican platforms. The Fact Checker column conducted at least 16 verifications related to the Clinton email controversy, many pinpointing inaccuracies in her public defenses, such as mischaracterizing the handling of under State Department guidelines. On economic assertions, Kessler gave Sen. two Pinocchios in March for claiming the 2008 Wall Street bailout cost taxpayers one trillion dollars, as federal data showed direct TARP outlays at about $426 billion with repayments exceeding losses. During the Democratic primary debates, he scrutinized Sanders' biographical and policy claims, such as exaggerations about his civil rights activism and fiscal projections for proposals like Medicare for All, where cost estimates from the contradicted Sanders' lower figures by trillions over a decade. For President , Kessler's team documented 78 false or misleading statements in his first 100 days of 2021, covering topics from response to economic data. In September 2020, Biden received four Pinocchios for alleging Trump was "gutting" Social Security through administrative actions, as budget analyses showed no net cuts and aimed at reducing improper payments without altering benefits. Fact-checks continued into Biden's term, including 2024 reviews of claims on border policy and drivers that diverged from Labor Department statistics. These checks, while fewer in aggregate than the specialized database tracking over 30,000 Trump claims from to 2021, demonstrated application of the scale across partisan lines, often relying on primary sources like government reports and historical records to assess empirical accuracy. Critics from Democratic-aligned outlets argued some ratings imposed undue scrutiny on policy details, but Kessler maintained the methodology emphasized verifiable data over interpretive disputes.

Controversies and Criticisms

Disputes Over Specific Fact-Checks

In August 2019, Glenn Kessler awarded four Pinocchios to Senator for stating that "millions of Americans are forced to file for every year because of bills," arguing that while expenses contribute to financial distress in many cases, direct causation by unpaid bills is not supported by rigorous , as studies often rely on self-reported showing rather than sole responsibility. The Sanders campaign contested the rating, demanding a retraction and citing a Harvard study by David Himmelstein and colleagues, which analyzed court records and found issues as a contributing factor in 62.1% of bankruptcies (updated to 66.5% in a 2019 review), asserting that Kessler dismissed broader empirical links between and filings. Critics, including progressive outlets, argued the fact-check employed overly narrow semantics on "forced," overlooking from sources like the American Journal of Medicine indicating bills precipitate over half of personal bankruptcies when including indirect costs like lost income from illness. Kessler rated President Donald Trump's repeated 2016 claim of 3 to 5 million illegal votes—primarily by non-citizens—as four Pinocchios, citing federal investigations, including by the , which estimated non-citizen voting at rates below 0.0001% based on audits of millions of ballots, and noting Trump's reliance on a misinterpreted report about registration errors rather than proven ballots. Trump supporters disputed this by pointing to state-level findings, such as Heritage Foundation's database documenting over 1,400 proven fraud cases since 1979 (including some non-citizen votes), and arguing aggregate underreporting due to lax verification, though these instances total far short of millions and lack evidence of coordinated impact on the popular vote margin of about 2.9 million. Election officials from both parties, including in battleground states, corroborated minimal fraud through post-election reviews, undermining claims of systemic scale. In July 2022, Kessler's article scrutinized the sourcing of reports about a 10-year-old rape victim traveling to for an abortion—highlighted by President —flagging reliance on a single physician's account without immediate corroboration from police or records, which raised questions about verification standards amid rapid politicization post-Roe v. Wade. Following the and guilty plea of a 27-year-old suspect for the rape on July 13, 2022, critics contended the piece unduly amplified doubt on a verified incident, potentially echoing conservative and delaying confirmation of the story's facts, as police reports later affirmed the girl's account and procedure. Kessler maintained the emphasis was on journalistic caution with unverified viral claims, but detractors highlighted that Ohio authorities had evidence aligning with the narrative earlier, per subsequent disclosures.

Allegations of Partisan Bias

Critics from conservative perspectives have alleged that Kessler's Fact Checker column exhibited partisan bias through disproportionate scrutiny of Republican figures, particularly , compared to Democrats. The Washington Post's database, maintained by Kessler's team, documented 30,573 false or misleading claims by Trump over his presidency from 2017 to 2021, a scale that dwarfed coverage of other politicians and prompted accusations of obsessive focus rather than balanced accountability. Conservative outlets, such as , characterized Kessler's work as akin to for Democratic administrations, issuing "fake fact-checks" primarily against conservatives while downplaying similar issues from the left. The echoed this, arguing that Kessler's ratings often targeted offenses against preferred narratives, contributing to perceived imbalances in application from 2016 onward. Democratic campaigns and left-leaning observers have leveled counter-criticisms, claiming Kessler applied undue harshness to progressive figures or minor disputes, equating them to the volume of Trump's statements. In September 2019, Democratic presidential campaigns protested fact-checkers like Kessler for assigning equivalent weight to candidates' "esoteric disputes and faulty recollections" as to Trump's prolific falsehoods, viewing it as a that hindered their messaging. Such complaints highlighted instances where scrutiny of or other Democrats on nuanced issues, such as economic claims during primaries, drew ire for perceived overreach amid lighter overall volume compared to Republican targets. Kessler defended the Fact Checker's approach as data-driven and consistent, emphasizing that it challenged claims across the without favoritism, as evidenced by fact-checks on Democrats including Biden-era policies and debate statements. Empirical analyses, however, have noted potential imbalances; a 2023 study comparing Washington Post and selections found 22.6% disagreement on which statements to check, with moderate agreement on deceptiveness ratings, suggesting variability in coverage priorities that could reflect underlying biases in sampling. These findings, while not proving intent, underscore critiques of uneven empirical application in practices from 2016 to 2024.

Awards and Publications

Major Awards and Honors

Kessler contributed to two Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting teams at prior to his tenure at , earning shared recognition for spot news coverage that demonstrated rigorous on-the-ground verification of events. His investigative series on issues, which prompted federal indictments, underscored the empirical focus of these efforts. In recognition of his fact-checking methodology, Kessler received the Sigma Delta Chi Award in 2023 from the for a 2022 series scrutinizing claims about , emphasizing evidence-based analysis over partisan framing. Kessler was awarded the Award for Investigative Reporting in 2025 by the Museum of , honoring his systematic exposure of political falsehoods through verification and causal tracing of misleading statements. The Washington Post submitted Kessler's Fact Checker work for Pulitzer consideration in 2019 in the National Reporting category, highlighting its role in documenting over 10,000 false or misleading claims by public figures, though the entry did not advance to finalist status.

Books and Other Writings

Kessler authored The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy, published in 2007 by , which analyzes National Security Advisor and later 's influence on President George W. Bush's foreign policy decisions, particularly regarding the and post-9/11 strategy. Drawing on over 100 interviews with administration officials, diplomats, and Rice's associates, the book details her transition from academic advisor to key architect of policies emphasizing preemptive action against perceived threats, including the 2002 National Security Strategy that formalized the doctrine of . It argues empirically that Rice's close personal rapport with Bush—fostered through shared backgrounds and private consultations—shaped early administration responses to intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs, though critics noted the work's reliance on insider accounts potentially skewed by post-hoc rationalizations. The book received praise for its reporting depth, with The New York Times Book Review describing it as "brilliantly reported" for uncovering Rice's behind-the-scenes advocacy for confronting as early as 2000, supported by declassified memos and contemporaneous notes. It also critiques institutional dynamics, such as Rice's coordination of interagency debates that prioritized over multilateral inspections, evidenced by timelines of State Department and NSC deliberations from 2001 to 2003. Internationally reviewed in over two dozen countries, the work highlights causal links between Rice's realist-influenced worldview—rooted in her Sovietology expertise—and the administration's pivot from to , without endorsing normative judgments on outcomes like the absence of WMDs. In 2020, Kessler co-authored Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President's Falsehoods, Misleading Claims and Flat-out Lies with Washington Post colleagues Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly, published by Scribner, compiling analyses of over 20,000 documented false or misleading statements by President from 2017 to 2020, categorized by policy areas including and . The volume emphasizes empirical tracking via , speeches, and data discrepancies—such as claims on border wall funding or election integrity—to illustrate patterns of repetition and escalation, though it draws directly from Kessler's Fact Checker database without introducing novel diplomatic case studies. Beyond these, Kessler contributed to policy discussions through non-book formats, including testimonies on foreign policy controversies like the affair during the era, where his reporting informed congressional inquiries into intelligence leaks tied to justifications. His pre-Fact Checker diplomatic dispatches, aggregated in anthologies on U.S. global engagement, underscore accountability in international negotiations, such as coverage of talks with in the early 2000s.

Later Career and Legacy

Retirement from The Washington Post

In July 2025, Glenn Kessler accepted a voluntary from , departing the newspaper on July 31 after more than 27 years of service, including nearly 15 years as editor and chief writer of The Fact Checker column. The occurred amid a broader round of staff reductions at the , which offered incentives to veteran employees as part of cost-cutting measures. Kessler's exit marked the end of the dedicated Fact Checker role without an immediate successor named, leaving the column's future uncertain. Kessler's final column, published on July 31, 2025, titled "The Fact Checker rose in an era of false claims. Falsehoods are now embedded in the culture," provided a retrospective on the proliferation of misinformation during his tenure. He argued that while fact-checking emerged to combat discrete false statements—particularly those amplified in the early social media age—falsehoods have since become normalized through platforms that enable instantaneous, unverified dissemination and shifting political norms that tolerate deception without consequence. In an NPR interview the same day, Kessler reflected that social media's algorithms and the acceptance of "alternative facts" in elite discourse had rendered traditional fact-checks less effective against culturally entrenched distortions. Following his departure, Kessler launched a Substack newsletter to pursue independent journalism, focusing on media analysis and fact-checking insights unbound by institutional constraints. In his inaugural post on August 5, 2025, he cited internal disagreements over editorial direction—including efforts to broaden appeal to conservative audiences and the absence of an ombudsman—as factors influencing his decision, though he emphasized the buyout's financial appeal amid uncertainty. No formal speaking engagements or new book projects were announced in the immediate aftermath, though Kessler indicated plans to continue critiquing journalistic practices through his personal platform.

Reflections on Fact-Checking Impact

In his final column as The Washington Post's Fact Checker on July 31, 2025, Glenn Kessler reflected that falsehoods had overwhelmed traditional fact-checking efforts, stating, "In an era where false claims are the norm, it's much easier to ignore the fact-checkers." He attributed this shift to the explosion of misinformation via social media platforms, which amplify unverified claims faster than corrections can propagate, rendering fact-checks less visible in public discourse. Kessler argued that former President Donald Trump's frequent false statements—tallied by his team at over 30,000 during Trump's presidency—normalized a culture of political lying with impunity, encouraging other politicians to repeat debunked claims without consequence. However, empirical studies on fact-checking's causal effects reveal more nuanced outcomes, often contradicting claims of transformative impact on . A 2021 PNAS study across four countries found fact-checks reduced belief in by about 10% immediately after exposure but showed over time, particularly among partisans who dismissed corrections aligning against their views. Similarly, a 2024 analysis of persistent political falsehoods indicated that 24.8% of debunked claims were repeated by politicians despite fact-checks, with algorithms prioritizing engagement over accuracy, leading to sustained spread in echo chambers. These findings underscore Kessler's pioneering role in establishing rigorous standards—like the Pinocchio scale for grading falsehoods—but highlight the futility against high-volume, ideologically reinforced narratives, where corrections rarely alter entrenched public perceptions. Kessler's legacy thus balances in empirical verification against the recognition of media's constrained influence. In a July 31, 2025, NPR interview, he acknowledged that while elevated journalistic , its sway waned in an environment where audiences selectively consume , often bypassing mainstream outlets for partisan sources. External analyses, such as a 2023 study on fact-checker credibility, further note that perceived bias in outlets like —amid broader institutional left-leaning tendencies—erodes trust among conservative audiences, limiting discourse-wide effects. Ultimately, Kessler's work advanced tools for truth-seeking but illuminated causal limits: fact-checks inform the willing but struggle to pierce polarized silos or counter the velocity of digital deception.

Personal Life

Family and Residence

Kessler married Cynthia J. Rich on September 18, 1988, in a ceremony reported by . The couple has three children. He resides in .

References

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