The fact-checking industrial complex

TV network booths are seen as preparations are made ahead of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on August 17, 2024. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

Holding powerful people accountable for lying is an important task for the media. Many larger media outlets have dedicated reporters, known as fact-checkers, to perform this function. They evaluate claims made by politicians and others in positions of authority and compare those claims to verifiable facts. 

In some cases, the output of fact-checkers is straightforward. For example, when former President Donald Trump addressed the Republican National Convention (RNC) last month, Glenn Kessler, who writes the Washington Post's fact-check column, scrutinized the claims in his speech. Kessler found that Trump lied repeatedly:

Trump claimed that Democrats "cheated" to win the 2020 presidential election. Kessler noted that more than 60 lawsuits were filed over the 2020 election, but no court found evidence of fraud. 

Trump claimed that, before COVID-19, he created "the greatest economy in the history of the world." Kessler noted that the United States had substantially higher growth in the 1990s, the 1960s, and the 1950s. 

Trump claimed that inflation under Biden was "the worst we ever had." Kessler noted that many years in U.S. history had higher inflation than 9%, the peak during the Biden administration.

Trump claimed that the U.S. had more crude oil reserves than any other country. It is actually in 10th place, behind Venezuela, Saudia Arabia, Canada, Iraq, Iran, and several other nations. 

Trump has little regard for accuracy, so Kessler included many other clear examples of Trump peddling lies. 

But the Washington Post and other major media outlets do not view fact-checking only as a vehicle to scrutinize false claims. They also view it as an opportunity to demonstrate that they are unbiased and treat both sides — Republicans and Democrats — equally. This is where the trouble starts. 

Last night, President Joe Biden and many other speakers addressed the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Without a doubt, Biden and other Democrats said some misleading things. For example, Biden claimed that he was "removing every lead pipe from schools and homes so every child can drink clean water." Biden did secure $15 billion for that task through the Inflation Reduction Act, but removing all lead pipes will likely cost a total of $45 billion. 

But, from a factual standpoint, there is no comparison between Trump and Biden's speeches. Trump is completely unmoored from the facts. Biden gets things wrong but much less frequently than Trump. 

Nevertheless, the fact-checking industry has attempted to prove its objectivity by producing similar pieces for the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. This requires some sleight of hand. Kessler's fact check on the night Trump spoke to the RNC was limited exclusively to Trump. Other noted fabulists on the agenda, including Tucker Carlson, Franklin Graham, Alina Habba, and Eric Trump, were ignored. Kessler's fact check of Biden's speech to the DNC included all other speakers on Monday evening. 

Even so, Kessler was required to stretch the concept of fact-checking to absurdity — sometimes mangling facts himself — to fill out his fact check for the first night of the DNC. For example, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's claim that Vice President Kamala Harris "won’t be sending love letters to dictators." As Kessler notes, Clinton was referring to 2018 comments by Trump claiming that he "fell in love" with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un through letters. "We fell in love, okay?" Trump said. "No, really, he wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.” Kessler, however, dings Clinton. He says that "[t]here is no evidence that Trump sent such letters" and "Clinton is making a bit of a leap to suggest that Trump has written 'love letters' to dictators." According to Kessler, "[w]e do not know what Trump wrote to Kim — or other dictators, for that matter."

Kessler's fact-check is not only pedantic, it is false. Bob Woodward, the legendary Washington Post reporter who still holds the title of "associate editor" at the paper, reported on 27 letters exchanged between Trump and Kim in his book "Rage" — including letters sent from Trump to Kim. "Like you, I have no doubt that a great result will be accomplished between our two countries, and that the only two leaders who can do it are you and me," Trump wrote to Kim on December 28, 2018. On June 30, 2019, Trump told Kim in a letter that "[b]eing with you today was truly amazing." Trump included a copy of the front page of the New York Times, which featured images of Trump with Kim, adding, "[t]hese images are great memories for me and capture the unique friendship that you and I have developed."

After Media Matters' Matt Gertz noted Kessler's error, the article was corrected. But Kessler did not remove Clinton's claim from the article and continued to suggest it was false or misleading. The correspondence between Trump and Kim, Kessler claims, "are mostly an exchange of negotiating positions on North Korea’s nuclear arsenal." 

The "love letters" claim was one of several issues with Kessler's fact-check article. Kessler also criticized Congressman Robert Garcia (D-CA) for claiming that Trump "told us to inject bleach into our bodies." In an April 23, 2020 televised press conference, Trump suggested that people infected with COVID-19 could be treated effectively "by injection" of a "disinfectant." The prospect, Trump said, "sounds interesting to me." Kessler said that Garcia's claim was "exaggerated" because "Trump did not say people should inject bleach into their bodies" and was simply suggesting it as a possibility for further medical research. That is not how everyone interpreted Trump's remarks was recieved. Clorox released a statement clarifying that its products should not be injected or ingested. The Michigan Poison and Drug Information Center reported that, following Trump's comments, "people acted on Trump’s advice and ingested chemicals, including bleach, across the country." 

Kessler also highlighted this claim from Biden: 

We know from his own chief of staff, four-star Gen. John Kelly, that Trump while in Europe would not go to the gravesites in France of the brave service members who gave their lives in this country, he called them "suckers and losers."

Kelly did say that Trump “rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.” Kessler suggests that Biden's characterization of Kelly's remarks is somehow misleading because "Kelly’s statement is carefully worded and does not directly say Trump refused to visit the graves because he thought they were losers." Biden did not directly say that either. 

There were additional fact-checks in the Washington Post's live blog of the DNC. It included this analysis from national reporter Amy Gardner:

But Gardner's own logic, Biden's assertion is absolutely true. Trump has said he will accept the results if it is a "fair and legal and good election." And, as Gardner notes, he also has said that Democrats can only beat him by cheating. Therefore, if he loses, Trump will not accept the result, just as Biden said.