The Washington Post 'Fact Checker' Dishes Out Pinocchios

The Legacy of Glenn Kessler and the Washington Post’s Fact-Checking Controversy

Glenn Kessler, the long-time fact-checker for the Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” column, recently announced his retirement after 27 years of scrutinizing political statements. In a statement, he mentioned that financial considerations played a significant role in his decision to step down. While he expressed a desire to continue monitoring political rhetoric, particularly in an era filled with misinformation, he felt it was time to move on.

Kessler became well-known for his use of the “Pinocchio scale” to rate the accuracy of political claims. A “Four Pinocchios” rating was his equivalent of a “Pants on Fire” lie. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Kessler highlighted how then-candidate Donald Trump received significantly more four-Pinocchio ratings than Hillary Clinton—59 to 7, respectively. This data reinforced the perception that Trump's statements were often inaccurate or misleading.

Over the years, Kessler developed a particular focus on Trump, which culminated in a book titled Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President's Falsehoods, Misleading Claims and Flat-Out Lies. The Post created a comprehensive database of Trump’s statements, and by the end of his first term, they had documented over 30,573 false or misleading claims. Critics often misinterpreted this number as 30,000 lies, but the count included repeated statements that were deemed false each time they were made.

One example of this repetition was Trump’s claim that “African American unemployment is at the best number in the history of our country.” This statement was labeled false because the Labor Department only began tracking this metric in 1972. The claim was rated false 79 times. Another repeated falsehood was Trump’s assertion that “Russian ‘collusion’ was just an excuse by the Democrats for having lost the election,” which was counted as false 225 times.

Despite his critical stance toward Trump, Kessler remained silent on certain controversial statements made by former President Barack Obama. For instance, when Obama claimed in 2018 that “we didn’t have a scandal that embarrassed us” during his presidency, Kessler did not challenge the statement, even though it ignored major controversies like the Benghazi attack, the Fast and Furious scandal, and the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups.

The Post also faced criticism for its approach to fact-checking under the Biden administration. After Biden’s inauguration, the paper announced it had no plans to launch a similar database for his statements. Kessler later appeared on MSNBC and suggested that the Biden presidency would mirror Obama’s in terms of responsiveness and factual backing. This echoed his earlier comments from 2016, where he described fact-checking Clinton as a strategic game of chess, while checking Trump was akin to playing checkers against someone who wasn’t very good.

Today, Kessler’s “Fact Checker” page predominantly features four-Pinocchio ratings for Republican figures, including Trump, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Senator Tim Scott, and House Speaker Mike Johnson. At the 100-day mark of Trump’s second term, Kessler published a piece titled “One Hundred Days of Trump 2.0: Falsehood After Falsehood, Again and Again.”

Critics have pointed out a growing imbalance in the Post’s fact-checking practices. In 2025, NewsBusters analyst Alex Christy noted that there were 105 fact checks targeting conservatives and Republicans compared to just four for liberals and Democrats. In 2024, the ratio was 143 to 24. These numbers have fueled accusations of bias and selective scrutiny.

In May, the New York Post editorial board criticized the Post for its handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story and its attacks on “cheapfake” videos of President Biden. Kessler has continued to defend these decisions, calling them factually defensible.

Kessler’s career has been marked by a clear focus on holding conservative politicians accountable, especially those associated with the Republican Party. His work has drawn both praise and criticism, with some viewing him as a necessary watchdog and others seeing him as part of a broader ideological trend within the media.

Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of NewsBusters.org, has closely followed these developments. He argues that Kessler’s contributions have played a key role in shaping public perception of political truth, particularly in relation to Trump and the GOP.