Biased media fact-checkers spent more than four years scrutinizing Donald Trump and nearly every single opinionated claim, off-hand comment, obvious joke, sarcastic remark, rally speech, prepared statement, and, of course, tweet.
According to the chief “fact-checker” for The Washington Post, Glenn Kessler, that same level of scrutiny won’t be applied to President Joe Biden. In fact, the newspaper’s meticulous presidential fact-check database will be ended, the Washington Examiner reported.
In his announcement Monday on Twitter, Kessler compared Biden and Trump as a way of explaining the paper’s stunning decision.
No fact-check database for Biden
“We’ve been comparing Biden (67 false or misleading claims) to Trump’s first 100 days (511 claims.) But past is no prologue. In the last 100 days before the 2020 election, we counted 8,859 claims made by Trump. It was a wild ride,” Kessler tweeted.
“Here’s the Biden database — which we do not plan to extend beyond 100 days. I have learned my lesson,” he continued.
Here’s the Biden database — which we do not plan to extend beyond 100 days. I have learned my lesson. https://t.co/qK42PRlnrS
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) April 27, 2021
“‘Learned my lesson’ means that 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,” Kessler wrote.
Kessler, whose primary job is to fact-check politicians and hold them accountable for public statements, concluded, “Maintaining the Trump database over four years required about 400 additional 8-hour days over four years beyond our regular jobs for three people. Biden is off to a relatively slow start but who knows what will happen. We will keep doing fact checks, just not a database.”
Getting ready for a four-year vacation
In the 100-day Biden database that he shared, Kessler further defended his decision to essentially stop doing his job at the same level by asserting that while Trump “swamped” the country with “false and misleading claims,” Biden simply offered the “typical” — and apparently acceptable — “frequent spin and obfuscation or exaggeration, with the occasional canard.”
“Biden’s relatively limited number of falsehoods is a function, at least in part, of the fact that his public appearances consist mostly of prepared texts vetted by his staff,” Kessler explained. “He devotes little time to social media, in contrast to his Twitter-obsessed predecessor, and rarely faces reporters or speaks off the cuff.”
As noted by Fox News, Kessler was shredded on social media for his decision to end the presidential fact-check database after only 100 days of the Biden administration, with people slamming him for exposing his bias and preparing for a four-year vacation.
Regardless of anyone’s opinion about Trump and his relationship with facts and truthful utterances, that has nothing to do with holding Biden accountable for his own remarks and speeches. Kessler has earned whatever criticism he receives for this overtly biased decision to go easy on Biden in comparison to the gauntlet of fact-checking imposed on Trump’s every word.
The post After four years of scrutinizing Trump, The Washington Post ends fact-check database for Biden first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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