Glenn Kessler's Denial of the 'Russia Collusion Hoax' Shows Fact-Checking Is Partisan, Not Objective
Source: Breccan F. Thies. "Glenn Kessler Clings To Russia Collusion Hoax 10 Years Later." October 23, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author argues that Glenn Kessler, a prominent fact-checker, still denies that the Russia collusion story was a hoax, gets defensive when challenged, and treats Trump more harshly than Biden. He says this shows fact-checking is really a partisan tool that protects Democrats and helps fuel left-wing hostility and violence.
Conclusion
Glenn Kessler and the fact-checking industry are partisan actors who have forfeited their credibility, as shown by Kessler's denial of a 'Russia collusion hoax,' his defensiveness when challenged, and his one-sided account of political rancor. In the author's view, they function to control public debate and give Democrats cover rather than to check facts impartially.
Premises
- Kessler promoted the claim that Trump colluded with Russia, which the author says was a hoax concocted by the Obama administration, and he now denies that any such hoax existed.
- Kessler defended himself by citing the Senate Intelligence Committee's finding that Russia tried to interfere in 2016, which the author says is a different claim from the one fact-checkers had been making.
- Kessler became defensive and dismissive when questioned, and claimed he has never needed to retract a fact check. The author treats this as inconsistent with the critical thinking he was being honored for.
- Kessler applied his scrutiny unevenly: he tallied tens of thousands of false or misleading Trump statements, but limited his Biden tracking to 100 days. Fact-checkers have also rated claims favorable to Democrats as unfounded, such as the Ilhan Omar claim by Snopes.
- Kessler blamed Trump and Gingrich for the 'other side is evil' rhetoric while omitting a long history of Democrats comparing Republicans to Nazis or Hitler (Truman on Dewey, LBJ on Goldwater, and attacks on Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Romney).
- That rhetoric has produced left-wing violence with no right-wing counterpart, and the corporate media, including fact-checkers, give Democratic politicians cover for it.
Assumptions
- The Russia collusion narrative was a deliberate fabrication, not an honest but mistaken or partially supported inference.
- Kessler's denial of a 'hoax' reflects bad faith rather than a good-faith disagreement over the evidence.
- Behavior at a single event, and an unequal tally of statements, are representative of systematic bias in the whole fact-checking industry.
- Unequal numbers of Trump and Biden fact-checks reflect bias rather than differences in the volume or nature of the statements.
- Historical Democratic rhetoric against Republicans is equivalent to, or worse than, the rhetoric Kessler blames on Trump.
- Political rhetoric directly causes political violence, and violence is asymmetrically left-wing.
- A fact-checker's failure to retract anything implies a lack of integrity rather than the correctness of the work.