WaPo Fact-Checker Who Attacked Tim Scott’s Black Heritage, Accused GOP of Lying About Biden’s Senility, Wins Journalism Award

Museum of Political Corruption honors Glenn Kessler, scion of Dutch oil tycoons

Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post‘s preeminent fact-checker best known for attacking Tim Scott’s black heritage and dismissing evidence of Joe Biden’s decline as  a right-wing conspiracy, is finally being honored for his commitment to “truth, accountability, and transparency.” The Museum of Political Corruption announced Kessler as this year’s winner of the Nellie Bly Award for Investigative Journalism, praising his work as a “testament to the power of fact-based reporting.”

Kessler said he was honored to be recognized for “unravelling falsehoods” using “intensive investigation” and “deep research.” Indeed, one of his most memorable fact checks features some exhaustive research into the family history of Tim Scott, the first black senator to represent a southern state since Reconstruction. Days before Scott was scheduled to give the Republican response to then-president Joe Biden’s congressional address in April 2021, Kessler conducted a fanatically extensive investigation into Scott’s claim that his grandfather, Artis Ware, was illiterate and dropped out of school to pick cotton during the Great Depression.

The Post journalist dove deep into Scott’s lineage and uncovered some allegedly damning evidence. He found documents suggesting that Artis Ware’s father was not illiterate, worked on a farm owned by his privileged black father, and lived in a house worth $10,000 in today’s dollars. Kessler dug up census records indicating that Artis Ware may have attended school through the fourth grade, not the third grade, as Scott had claimed. His investigation was “aided” by several experts, including two university professors who happened to be Democratic donors. Kessler concluded that Scott’s version of his family history was a “tidy story package for political consumption” that was “missing some nuance” because it downplayed the “success” of his ancestors, who were living the high life in South Carolina in the early 1900s.

Crucial context: Kessler’s great-grandfather, Jean Baptiste August Kessler, was an oil magnate who built Royal Dutch Petroleum—now Shell. Another great-grandfather, Adriaan Stoop, was also an oil magnate whose firm eventually merged with Royal Dutch. The fact-checker’s grandfather, Geldolph Adriaan Kessler, founded the Dutch steel conglomerate Hoogovens.

Washington Post Fact Checkers Expose Truth About Tim Scott’s Black Privilege in Triumph of Accountability Journalism

Kessler scored another victory in the battle against misinformation on June 15, 2024, days before the infamous CNN debate that ended Biden’s reelection campaign.  In a fact check titled, “‘Cheapfake’ Biden videos enrapture right-wing media, but deeply mislead,” Kessler denounced the “deceptive framing” of several video clips being shared by Republicans of Biden behaving like a senile old man. He scolded conservative media outlets for noticing that Biden appeared to “freeze” during a Juneteenth celebration at the White House. Kessler investigated and found that other people around Biden were also standing still. He cited a 2009 interview in which Biden said he doesn’t dance, as well as a statement from Andrew Bates, the discredited White House press aide who accused Republicans of promoting “misinformation and cheap fakes” to distract from Biden’s historic accomplishments as president. Bates continued to defend Biden after the CNN debate, insisting that the president works “around the clock” and “maintains a schedule that tires younger aides” while proving his mental acuity by delivering “tangible results that pundits had declared impossible.”

The clips purporting to show evidence of Biden’s cognitive decline, Kessler wrote, were an “especially pernicious” example of “manipulated video” intended to “create a false narrative.” His verdict: “The RNC and its avid followers in the conservative media earn Four Pinocchios.”

Our verdict: Regarding the claim that Kessler deserves to be awarded for his “fact-based reporting” and commitment to “truth, accountability, and transparency,” the Museum of Political Corruption earns Four Flaming Clintons.